Second order periodic boundary value problems with reflection and piecewise constant arguments

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze a second-order differential equation with a piecewise constant argument and reflection coupled to periodic boundary conditions. Our main contribution is the construction of the related Green's function and a detailed analysis of its properties. In particular, we determine the region in which the Green's function has constant sign, depending on the parameters $m$ and $M$ on which it depends. In some cases, we are able to characterize these parameter values in terms of the first eigenvalue related to suitable Dirichlet problems. Building in these results, we apply the Krasnosel'skii method to establish the existence of solutions for different nonlinear problems, and prove the existence of a positive solution of a perturbed Schrodinger equation.