Existence and non-existence of limit cycles for Liénard prescribed curvature equations (Q2424012)

Consider the Liénard prescribed curvature equation \[ \frac{d}{dt} \frac{\dot x}{\sqrt{1+\dot x^2}}+\lambda f(x)\dot x+g(x)=0\tag{\(*\)} \] under the condition \(\lambda>0\), \(xg(x)>0\) for \(x\ne 0\), \(f(x)\) is negative for \(\alpha<x<\beta\) with \(\alpha<0<\beta\) and positive for \(x<\alpha\) and \(x>\beta\), additionally \(f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) is continuous and \(g:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) is locally Lipschitzian, \(G(x)=\int^x_0g(s)ds\), \(f(x)=\int^x_0f(s)ds\), \(G(-\infty)=G(+\infty) =G(\omega)\). In the case \(f(x)\equiv 0\), equation (\(*\)) has the Hamiltonian \(H(x,y)\equiv 1-\sqrt{1-y^2}+G(x)\). The level curve \(H(x,y)=1\) intersects the \(x\)-axis at the points \(x_1<0\) and \(x_2>0\). The authors prove the following results: In the case \(G(\infty) >1\) and \(\alpha\le x_1<0<x_2\le\beta\) equation (\(*\)) has no nontrivial periodic solution for every \(\lambda>0\), in the case \(0<G(\infty)<1\) and \(F(x)\to+\infty\) as \(x\to\pm\infty\) equation (\(*\)) has at leas one nontrivial periodic solution for \(\lambda\) small enough, and no nontrivial periodic solution for \(\lambda\) large enough. As a special case of (\(*\)), the \(k\)-van der Pol equation \[ \frac{d}{dt}\frac{\dot x}{\sqrt{1+\dot x^2}}+\lambda(x^2-k^2)\dot x+x=0 \] is considered.