Lagrange stability for Duffing-type equations (Q1969979)

The boundedness of solutions (Lagrange stability) to a generalized Duffing equation of the form \[ \frac{d^2 x}{dt^2} + x^{2n+1} + \sum_{j=0}^{2n} p_j (t)x^j = 0, \quad n\geq 1, \tag{1} \] with \(p_j (t+1)= p(t) \) is considered. The conditions for the \(p_j's\) which lead to the boundedness of the solutions to (1) were investigated by many authors. The main question was whether or not the boundedness phenomenon is related to the smoothness of the \(p_j's.\) In this article, the author shows that the continuity of the \(p_j's\), to say nothing of the smoothness, is not necessary for the boundedness of solutions to (1). In fact, there exist \(p_j's\) being discontinuous everywhere such that all solutions to (1) are bounded.