Subharmonic solutions of the forced pendulum equation: a symplectic approach (Q2510432)

The authors consider the pendulum equation \[ x''+ \beta \sin x = f(t), \] where \(\beta\) is a positive constant and \(f:{\mathbb R}\to{\mathbb R}\) is a continuous and \(T\)-periodic function such that \(\int_0^T f(t)\,dt=0\). The class of such functions is denoted by \({\widetilde C}_T\). They prove the existence of an open and prevalent set \({\mathcal F}\) in \({\widetilde C}_T\) with the following property: \medbreak For every \(f\in{\mathcal F}\), there exists a positive integer \(k^*\) such that, for every integer \(k\geq k^*\), the pendulum equation has a \(kT\)-periodic solution which is not \(\ell T\)-periodic, for any \(\ell=1,2,\dots,k-1\). \medbreak Notice that, since prevalent sets are dense in the ambient space, the set \({\mathcal F}\) is a generic set, so that it is large in both senses, measure and category.