Periodic solutions of convex autonomous Hamiltonian systems with a quadratic growth at the origin and superquadratic at infinity (Q1094715)

The authors study the periodic solutions of the Hamiltonian system with a Hamiltonian function \(H(z)=<Qz,z>+\hat H(z)\), for \(z=(x,y)\in {\mathbb{R}}^ N\times {\mathbb{R}}^ N\), where \(Q=H''(0)\) is a symmetric positive definite matrix and \(\hat H\) has a superquadratic behavior. Without loss of generality, we can assume that \(Q=diag(\omega_ 1,...,\omega_ N,\omega_ 1,...,\omega_ N)\) with \(0<\omega_ 1\leq...\leq \omega_ N\). The main result of this paper may be viewed as a generalization of the theorem of Ekeland and Hofer (which concerns the case that \(Q=0)\), in the sense that, given on \(\hat H\) the same conditions, the authors are able to prove the existence of periodic solutions having any prescribed minimal period less than \(2\pi/\omega_ N\). Intuitively, the purely superquadratic case can be considered as a limit of the present one, since it is obtained as \(\omega_ N\) goes to 0.