On periodic solutions to second-order Duffing type equations (Q1686284)

The work is motivated by well-known facts about periodic solutions of the classical autonomous Duffing equation \[ u''+au-bu^3=0. \] The authors consider the more general non-autonomous equation \[ u''=p(t)u+q(t,u)u , \] where the term \(q(t,u)u\) is devoted to induce super-linear nonlinearities. For this equation associated with periodic boundary conditions, they obtain several results providing sufficient conditions for the existence and/or uniqueness of constant sign or sign changing solutions, as well as the existence of exactly three solutions. Essentially, the approach relies on differential inequalities techniques, originated in earlier works of the first author.