Minimal periods of solutions to higher-order functional differential equations (Q463760)

Consider the periodic boundary value problem \[ \begin{aligned} x^{(n)}(t) &= (Fx)(t),\quad t\in [0,T],\\ x^{(i)}(0) &= x^{(i)}(T)\quad\text{for }i= 0,\dots, n-1,\end{aligned}\tag{\(*\)} \] where \(x(t)\in \mathbb{R}^m\). Concerning \(F\) the following condition is assumed: \[ \begin{multlined}\max_{1\leq i\leq m}\,\Biggl(\mathop{\text{vrai sup}}\limits_{t\in[0,T]}\,(Fx)_i(t)-\mathop{\text{vrai inf}}\limits_{t\in [0,T]}\, (Fx)_i(t)\Biggr)\leq\\ L\max_{1\leq i\leq m}\,\Biggl(\max_{t\in [0,T]}\, x_i(t)-\min_{t\in [0,T]}\,x_i(t)\Biggr),\end{multlined} \] where \(L\) is some positive constant. The author proves that if \((*)\) has a non-constant solution, then it holds \[ T\geq{1\over (LK_n)^{1/n}}, \] where the constants \(K_n\) are connected with the Favard constants and satisfy \[ \lim_{n\to\infty}\, K^{1/n}_n= {1\over 2\pi}. \]