Twist character of the fourth order resonant periodic solution (Q2570843)

The authors discuss the stability of the equilibrium \(x=0\) for the equation \[ \ddot{x}+a(t)x+b(t)x^2+c(t)x^3+\cdots =0, \] where the coefficients \(a\), \(b\) and \(c\) are periodic of the same period. The assumptions on the coefficients \(b\) and \(c\) are explicit and not of the type of small parameters. With respect to previous results in this direction, the novelty is that the strong resonance of the fourth order is allowed. This means that the Floquet multipliers \(\pm i\) can be treated. The stability criteria are obtained after delicate computations. These criteria are applied to improve previous results on the forced pendulum equation.