On the oscillation of Hill's equations under periodic forcing (Q2492959)

The paper establishes that all solutions of the equation \[ x^{\prime\prime}+c\sin t\cdot x=\cos t \] oscillate in \([0,+\infty)\) when \(c\) is a nonzero constant and that all solutions of the equation \[ x^{\prime\prime}+(a+\sin t)x=\cos t \] oscillate in \([0,+\infty)\) if \(a>a^{\star}= -0.378489\) (the oscillation constant). Both results are major achievements in the field of qualitative theory of Hill's and Mathieu's equations. They answer positively to recent conjectures. The proofs rely on Floquet theory, analysis of disconjugacy intervals, variational technique of Leighton-Swanson type in the Sturmian theory of ODEs. A key device is the construction of periodic oscillatory solutions to these equations. Powerful insight in the nature of \(a^{\star}\) is given in Section 5. The paper closes with several open problems. It is to be expected that significant research of people involved in this field will follow from this brilliant work.