Existence of a periodic solution for superlinear second order ODEs (Q2106557)

The author studies the existence of periodic solutions for the second order ordinary differential equation \[ x'' + f (t,x) + p (t,x,x') = 0. \] The main result of the paper is the following. Theorem. Assume the following conditions hold true. \begin{itemize} \item[\((A1)\)] the Carathéodory functions \(f:\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) and \(p:\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^2\to R\) are \(T\)-periodic in the first variable \(t\)\,; \item[\((A2)\)] for every \((t_0, x_0, y_0) \in [0, T ] \times \mathbb{R}^2\) there is a unique solution of the associated Cauchy problem \(x(t_0) = x_0\), \(x'(t_0) = y_0\)\,; \item[\((A3)\)] \(\lim_{|x|\to\infty} f (t, x) = +\infty\), uniformly in \(t \in [0, T ]\); \item[\((A4)\)] there exist a positive constant \(C_p\) and a positive function \(\gamma_p \in L^1([0, T ], R)\) such that \(|p(t,x,y)|<\gamma_p(t)+C_p|x|\), for every \((x,y)\in \mathbb{R}^2\) and almost every \(t\in [0,T]\); \item[\((A5)\)] for every \(\bar t\in[0,T]\), the solution of the associated Cauchy problem \(x(\bar t) = x'(\bar t) = 0\) can be continued to the whole interval \([0,T]\). \end{itemize} Then, there exists at least one \(T\)-periodic solution. The above theorem extends previous results by Jacobowitz and Hartman. The author then elaborates the above result so to obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a \(T\)-periodic solution. The real need of condition \((A5)\) remains an open problem.