An answer to Littlewood's problem on boundedness for super-linear Duffing's equations (Q1114059): Difference between revisions

The author proves the following theorem: Consider the equation \((1)\quad x''+g(x)=p(t),\) where p is continuous, periodic, and g is \(C^ 1\), with a super-linear growth at infinity. Then, each solution of (1) is bounded on \({\mathbb{R}}\). This is a complete answer, in the super-linear case, to a problem brought up by J. Littlewood, regarding the boundedness of solutions of a second order differential equation. Partial results have previously been obtained in the case where g is a polynomial. The proof is based on two properties: a ``twist property'', the fact that solutions tend to spiral around any given point faster and faster when the initial value is taken from further and further; existence of positively (resp. negatively) invariant sets with respect to the Poincaré map (associated to (1)): those sets can be chosen in such a way that they form a cut in any ball of the phase plane, (which is a spiral around the center of the ball) has to cross somewhere, this is the essence of T. Ding's proof. As a final remark, let us make a short comparison with the time independent situation: in that case, orbits of periodic solutions enclose invariant domains, the union of them covers the whole plane. The main difficulty in the time dependent case lies in the fact that the orbits of periodic solutions do not determine invariant domains anymore.