On the nonlinear stability of nonautonomous binary systems (Q412700)

This paper investigates planar nonautonomous ordinary differential equations \[ \dot x=a(t)x+b(t)y+f(x,y,t), \quad \dot y=c(t)x+d(t)y+g(x,y,t) \] with nonlinearities satisfying \(f(0,0,t)\equiv g(0,0,t)\equiv 0\). Under regularity assumptions on the coefficients \(a,b,c,d\) and the functions \(f,g\) guaranteeing global existence of solutions, stability criteria for the trivial solution are deduced. They are based on an appropriate ``sharp'' Lyapunov function and uniformity conditions on \(a,b,c,d\). Applications are given to equations from nonlinear mechanics of the form \(\ddot x+p(t,x,\dot x)\dot x+q(t,x,\dot x)x=0\), which include the Hill, Mathieu-Hill and the nonautonomous Duffing equation. In addition, a nonautonomous Lotka-Volterra system is studied.