Periodic solutions for a class of autonomous Hamiltonian systems (Q921220)

Consider the Hamiltonian system \(\dot p=-\partial H/\partial q\), \(\dot q=\partial H/\partial p\), where \(H(p,q)=U(p)+V(q),\) so that the equations of motion are \(\dot p=-V'(q)\), \(\dot q=U'(p)\). The author proves the following result. Let \(U,V\in C^ 1({\mathbb{R}}^ n,{\mathbb{R}})\), U strictly convex, V everywhere nonnegative. Assume that there are positive constants \(\alpha \in]1,+\infty [\), \(\mu >\alpha /(\alpha -1)\), \(c_ 1,c_ 2,c_ 3\), and r such that the following conditions hold. \((H_ 1)\) \(c_ 1| p|^{\alpha}\leq U(p)\leq c_ 2| p|^{\alpha},\) for all \(p\in {\mathbb{R}}^ n\), \((H_ 2)\alpha U(p)\leq U'(p)\cdot p\), for all \(p\in {\mathbb{R}}^ n\), \((H_ 3)\) \(0<\mu V(q)\leq V'(q)\cdot q-c_ 3,\) for all \(| q| \geq r\). Then, for each \(T>0\), the problem (2) has infinitely many T-periodic non trivial solutions. By setting \(\alpha =2\) and by considering the particular case \(U(p)=(1/2)| p|^ 2\), we reobtain a result of \textit{V. Benci} [theorem 3.7, in Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 33, 147-172 (1980; Zbl 0472.58009)], which in turn generalizes a result of \textit{P. H. Rabinowitz} [theorem 2.61, in ibid. 31, 156-184 (1978; Zbl 0358.70014)]. For \(\alpha\neq 2\) theorem A is substantially different from all the results available to the author.