Periodic solutions of the Liénard equation with one-sided growth restrictions (Q1820912)

This paper deals with the periodic boundary value problem for nonlinear Liénard equation \((1)\quad x''+f(x)x'+g(x)=e(t).\) Instead of the equation (1)the authors study the equivalent system \((2)\quad x'=y- F(x)+E(t),\) \(y'=-g(x)\), where \(F(x):=\int^{x}_{x_ 0}f(u) du,\) \(E(t):=\int^{t}_{t_ 0}e(s) ds,\) \(G(x):=\int^{x}_{x_ 0}g(u) du,\) for fixed \(x_ 0\) and \(t_ 0\). The basic assumption on g is the following \((3)\quad g(x)x\geq 0,\) for \(| x| \geq d>0.\) Essentially, two kinds of existence results for (1) have been proved, assuming, besides (3), either the dissipativity condition \((4)\quad \lim_{| x| \to +\infty}F(x)\cdot sign(x)=+\infty (-\infty)\) or the nonresonance condition \((5)\quad \lim_{| x| \to +\infty}g(x)/x=0.\) The aim of this paper is to prove the existence of T- periodic solutions to (1) assuming only one-sided conditions on the growth of F and g at \(+\infty\) (or -\(\infty)\) instead of (4), (5). The restrictions on the growth of g are sometimes replaced by more general ones on its integral G. The proofs of the main results are topological in nature: to derive suitable apriori estimates for \(| x(t)| +| y(t)|\), \(t\in [0,T]\), and then to use the basic property of the Brouwer's degree of \(S: (x,y)\mapsto (y-F(x)+\bar E,-g(x)),\) with \(\bar E:=(1/T)\int^{T}_{0}E(s)ds.\) The list of references consists of 36 items containing the history of the problem. The results of this paper are new and improve some known ones.