Stability properties of periodic solutions of periodically forced non- degenerate systems (Q1262440)

Throughout the paper it is assumed that f: \(U\to R^ 2\) is of class \(C^ 2\) and \(f(x)=0\) if and only if \(x=0\), \(U\subseteq R^ 2\) is open, \(0\in U\); \(F: R\times U\to R^ 2\) is of class \(C^ 1\) in its domain and \(F(t,x)=F(t+T,x)\) for all (t,x)\(\in R\times U\), and such that 0 is the center of system (*) \(x'=f(x)\), that is, there exists a continuum C of periodic orbits of (*) contained in U and conclosing the origin. Moreover, C contains a nontrivial periodic solution u(t) of least period T, and u(t) is non-degenerate (i.e. not degenerate, u(t) is degenerate if and only if every solution of the linear variational equation \(y'=f_ x(u(t))y\) is T-periodic). Under these hypotheses the authors study the stability properties of T-periodic solution of the ordinary differential equation \(x'=f(x)+\epsilon F(t,x),\) where \(\epsilon\in R\) is a small parameter.