The phase-plane picture for a class of fourth-order conservative differential equations (Q1975475)

The aim of the paper is to discuss the behavior of the solutions to the equation \[ -\gamma u'''' +u''+f(u)=0,\tag{*} \] where \(\gamma\) is a small positive parameter and \(f\) comes from a potential \(F.\) The first result is that for all small positive \(\gamma\) the plane paths \((u,u')\) do not cross each other. The second result refers to the monotonicity properties of the Hamiltonian \[ E[u]:=-\gamma u'''u' +{\gamma\over{2}}(u'')^{2}+{1\over {2}}(u')^{2} +F(u)=E. \] The third result refers to the periodic solutions to (*) and especially to their continuous dependence with respect to the energy \(E.\) The author applies these results to the extended Fisher-Kolmogorov equation, namely to equation (*) with \(f(u)=u-u^{3}\) and some results on the bounded solutions of it are obtained.