Pairs of positive periodic solutions of nonlinear ODEs with indefinite weight: a topological degree approach for the super-sublinear case

We study the periodic and the Neumann boundary value problems associated with the second order nonlinear differential equation \begin{equation*} u’’ + c u’ + \lambda a(t) g(u) = 0, \end{equation*} where $g \colon \mathopen{[}0,+\infty\mathclose{[}\to \mathopen{[}0,+\infty\mathclose{[}$ is a sublinear function at infinity having superlinear growth at zero. We prove the existence of two positive solutions when ${\int }_0^{T}a(t)\text{\hspace{0.17em}⁣}dt<0$ and $\lambda >0$ is sufficiently large. Our approach is based on Mawhin’s coincidence degree theory and index computations.