Nonresonance conditions for asymptotically positively homogeneous differential systems: The Fučik spectrum and its generalization (Q1265100)

The author concerns the existence of solutions to the problem \[ x'=f(t,x),\quad x(0)=x(\omega), \] with \(x\in{\mathbb{R}}^n\). The author introduces a Fučík spectrum for such a problem as the set of pairs of matrices \((A^+,A^-)\) so that there exist nontrivial solutions to the problem \[ x'=A^+x^++A^-x^-,\quad x(0)=x(\omega), \tag{1} \] with \(x^+_i=\max(x_i,0)\) and \(x^-_i=\min(x_i,0)\). A complete description of the Fučík spectrum for the planar system (n=2) is worked out. A nonresonance result is proved in case the nonlinearity is asymptotic (as \(x\) goes to infinity) to the problem (1) and \((A^+,A^-)\) is not in the Fučík spectrum. The main result is a nonresonance result for systems whose nonlinearity \(f(t,x)\) is asymptotically \(A^+(t,x)x^++A^-(t,x)x^-\). The key assumption is that there exist matrices \(B^{\pm}(t)\) and \(C^{\pm}(t)\in L^1(0,\omega)\) such that (i) \(B^{\pm}(t)\leq A^{\pm}(t,x)\leq C^{\pm}(t)\) (componentwise) and that (ii) (Property P) for any matrices \(A^{\pm}(t)\) such that \(B^{\pm}(t)\leq A^{\pm}(t)\leq C^{\pm}(t)\), system (1) has only the trivial solution. This extends and unifies several known results. In particular, it applies to a variety of problems such as the second-order problem \[ u''+f(t,u,u')=h(t),\quad u(0)=u(\omega), u'(0)=u'(\omega), \] and covers the existence of periodic solutions to Liénard and Rayleigh equations.