Heteroclinics for a reversible Hamiltonian system. II (Q1328975)

The author investigates reversible second order Hamiltonian systems of the form (HS) \(\ddot q + W_q(q,t)=f(t)\). Basic assumptions in addition to reversibility are that \(W \in C^2 (\mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R}, \mathbb{R})\) is \(\mathbb{Z}^n\)-periodic in \(q \in \mathbb{R}^n\) and that \(W\) and \(f \in C (\mathbb{R}, \mathbb{R}^n)\) are periodic in \(t\) (the periodicity assumption can be weakened in order to cover different behavior for \(t > 0\) or \(t < 0)\). Two types of results are proved. The first type yields the existence of heteroclinic solutions between certain periodic orbits of minimal energy. The second yields a solution through a given \(\xi \in \mathbb{R}^n\) whose \(\omega\)-limit set is a periodic orbit of minimal energy. The case \(n = 1\) is studied more closely. The proofs are based on the calculus of variations. The paper is a sequel to an earlier paper of the author [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 14, No. 4, 817-829 (1994; Zbl 0818.34025)].