Periodic solutions of difference equations with general periodicity (Q1600419)

The authors discuss the continuous difference equation \[ x(t+1)= f\bigl(x(t)\bigr)+ \varepsilon g\bigl(t,x(t), x(t+1)\bigr),\tag{1} \] where \(f\) and \(g\) are given continuous functions and \(\varepsilon >0\) is a parameter. The function \(g\) is \(m\)-periodic in \(t\) and \(m\) may be not equal to the period of the cycle of \(f\) (a set \({\mathcal H}=\{w_1, \dots,w_n\}\) is called an \(n\)-cycle of \(f\) if \(w_1,\dots,w_n\) are distinct points in \(R\) and: \(f(w_i)= w_{i+1}\), \(i=1,\dots,n-1\), \(f(w_n)=w_1)\). The existence of periodic solutions is studied and these results are generalised to the case of higher-order difference equations. An algorithm to estimate the bound of the parameter \(\varepsilon\), for which periodic solutions exist, is also given.