Existence of periodic solutions and bounded invariant sets for non-autonomous third-order differential equations (Q1879162)

The authors study the problem of existence of periodic solutions of the third-order nonautonomous differential equation \[ \dddot x+\omega^2\dot x= \mu F(x,\dot x,\ddot x,t,\varepsilon),\tag{1} \] where the \(C^r\), \(r\geq 2,\) map \(F\) is periodic in \(t\), and \(\mu\), \(\varepsilon\) are real parameters. First, the author reduces (1) to a second-order differential equation. Then, he shows that the periodic (homoclinic) solutions of the second-order equation imply the periodic (homoclinic) solutions of (1). Then, the author uses the Hopf bifurcation theorem for the second-order equation and obtains solutions and nontrivial bounded invariant sets for it.