Periods of solutions of periodic differential equations. (Q331344)

This paper deals with periodic ordinary differential equations of the form \[ x'(t)=f(t,x(t)),\eqno{(1)} \] where \(t\) is real and \(x\in\mathbb K^n\) with \(\mathbb K=\mathbb R\) or \(\mathbb K=\mathbb C\) and \(n\in\mathbb N\). The function \(f\) is, in general, a \(\mathcal C^1\) function which is \(T\)-periodic (when \(\mathbb K=\mathbb C\) the function \(f\) is assumed to be holomorphic in \(z\)). If \(n\geq 2\) it is proved that the equation can have solutions of any period and one of the main goals of the paper is to show that this is not the case when \(n=1\). Roughly speaking, if \(n=1\) and \(\mathbb K=\mathbb R\) it is proved that the quotient between \(T\) and the period of any solution is a natural number and if \(n=1\) and \(\mathbb K=\mathbb C\) it is proved that the quotient between \(T\) and the period of any solution is a rational (positive) number. Indeed, these results for \(n=1\) are sharp in the sense that there is an equation defined over \(\mathbb R\) (resp. over \(\mathbb C\)) such that the quotient between \(T\) and the period of a solution is a given natural number (resp. a given rational positive number). The set of periods of all the periodic solutions of an equation (1) is denoted by \(\mathbb P(f)\). In order to illustrate the mentioned results, the authors construct different sets of examples of functions \(f\) for which a pre-defined set of periods \(\mathbb P(f)\) is exhibited. The authors also study the existence of such a function \(f\) and its functional class when given a pre-defined set of periods. Of particular interest there is the study of existence of such an \(f\) depending on the cardinality of the pre-defined set of periods. In some of the considered cases, the function \(f\) is such that the corresponding equation is a generalized Abel differential equation, that is, \[ x'=a_m(t)x^m + a_{m-1}(t)x^{m-1}+\dots + a_1(t)x +a_0(t), \] where \(a_i(t)\) are \(T\)-periodic functions of class \(\mathcal C^1\) or, more particularly, trigonometric polynomials.