Multiple periodic solutions of Hamiltonian systems confined in a box (Q525524)

The authors prove the existence of infinitely many \(T\)-periodic solutions of a planar Hamiltonian system \[ x' = \frac{\partial \mathcal{H}}{\partial y}\;(t,x,y), \;\;\;y' = - \frac{\partial \mathcal{H}}{\partial x}\;(t,x,y), \] where the Hamiltonian function \(\mathcal{H}(t,x,y)\) is assumed to be continuous, \(T\)-periodic in \(t\) and continuously differentiable in \(x\) and \(y\) for \((x,y) \in \mathcal{R}\) and \( \mathcal{R =} ]a_{1,1},a_{1,2}[ \times ]a_{2,1},a_{2,2}[ \) with \(a_{i,j} \in \mathbb{R}\cup \{ -\infty,+\infty \}.\) In particular, \(\mathcal{R}\) can be either a rectangle or an unbounded set, like a quadrant, a half-plane, or the whole plane \(\mathbb{R}^2.\) Assuming that the system has an interior equilibrium point, that the Hamiltonian function may be decomposed as \[ \mathcal{H}(t,x,y) = H_1 (t,x)+H_2 (t,y) + \mathcal{U}(t,x,y) \] and some additional hypotheses on \(H_1, H_2\) and \(\mathcal{U},\) it is proved that there exists an integer \(K_0\) such that, for every integer \(K > K_0\), the Hamiltonian system has at least two \(T\)-periodic solutions performing exactly \(K\) clockwise rotations around the equilibrium point \((x_0,y_0)\) in the time interval \([0,T].\) A simple example of the general theorem is \[ x' = \alpha (t) \left [ \frac{c_{2,2}}{(a_{2,2} -y)^2} - \frac{c_{2,1}}{(y-a_{2,1})^2} \right ] \] \[ y' = \beta (t) \left [ \frac{c_{1,1}}{(a_{1,1} -x)^2} - \frac{c_{1,2}}{(x-a_{1,2})^2} \right ] \] where the constants \(c_{i,j}\) are positive and the functions \(\alpha,\beta\) are continuous, positive and \(T\)-periodic. The proof uses a generalized version of the Poincaré-Birkhoff theorem proved in [the first author and \textit{A. J. Ureña}, Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire 34, No. 3, 679--698 (2017; Zbl 1442.37076)].