The number of bifurcation points of a periodic one-parameter ODE with at most two periodic solutions (Q1881086)

The authors study the family of differential equations \[ x'(t) =F(t,x,\lambda), \qquad x(0) = x(T),\tag \(\star\) \] and give results concerning the number of bifurcation points under the assumption that for each \(\lambda \in \mathbb{R}\), the equation has at most two \(T\)-periodic solutions. Associated with \((\star)\) we have the set \[ \mathcal{D} =\{(x,\lambda) \in \mathbb{R}^{2}: \overline{x}(.,x,\lambda) {\text{ is defined in }}[0,T] \] and the Poincaré map \(\pi(x,\lambda) = \overline{x}(T,x,\lambda)\). Then the \(T\)-periodic solutions of \((\star)\) will be \(\Gamma = \{(x,\lambda)\in \mathcal{D}: \pi(x,\lambda) = x \}\). Here, the attention is focused on those differential equations for which \(\{x: (x,\lambda)\in \Gamma\}\) has only isolated points for each \(\lambda \in\mathbb{R}\). Let \(U\) be a bounded neighborhood of \((x_{0},\lambda_{0})\) and fix \(\lambda\). Let denote by \(n(U,\lambda) = \varphi(\lambda)\) the number of elements of \(\{x: (x,\lambda) \in U \cap\Gamma\}\). Following \textit{S.-N. Chow} and \textit{J. K. Hale} [Methods of bifurcation theory. Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften Bd. 251, New York-Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer Verlag (1982; Zbl 0487.47039)], \((x_{0},\lambda_{0}) \in \Gamma\) is a bifurcation point of \((\star)\) if for every bounded neighborhood of \((x_{0},\lambda_{0}),\) the function \(\varphi(\lambda)\) is not constant. Under some technical conditions, \((\star)\) has at most two bifurcation points. Additionally, the authors find sufficient conditions under which \((\star)\) has exactly \(k\) bifurcation values for \(k=0,1\) and 2. These results improve some others obtained by \textit{N. Lloyd} [Bull. Soc. Math. Belg., Sér. B 40, 299--320 (1988; Zbl 0683.34022)] for the same family of equations and in turn for the family \(x'(t) = F(t,x(t)) + \lambda, x(0) = (T)\), introduced by \textit{J. Mawhin} [Z. Angew. Math. Phys. 38, 257--265 (1987; Zbl 0644.34035)].