Exact solutions of a class of differential equations of Lamé's type and its applications to contact geometry (Q5928688)

The purpose of the article is to relate solutions of Lamé type (linear ordinary differential equations where some coefficients involve Jacobi's elliptic functions) to solutions to the nonlinear differential equation \(\lambda''=-c\lambda-2\lambda^3/9\). The author first recalls earlier results that Legendre curves in a \(3\)-sphere or in a three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space-time may be characterised as solutions to the equation \(z''=i\lambda z'-cz\) where the real-valued function \(\lambda\) solves the differential equation above. The main result are explicit expressions for two independent complex-valued solutions \(z(x)\) to the latter equation. Finally, some concrete examples are given.