Parabolic fixed points and stability criteria for nonlinear Hill's equation (Q5931072)

The authors give an extension of a stability criterion due to Simó for the Hamiltonian system \[ \dot z= J\Delta_z H(t,z) \tag{1} \] with \(J= \left(\begin{smallmatrix} p & 1\\ -1 & 0\end{smallmatrix}\right)\) and \(H\in{\mathcal H}^{m+1}\). A function \(H: T\times V\to\mathbb{R}\), \((t,z)\to H(t,z)\) (\(T= \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\)) defined in some open neighbourhood \(V\) of \(0\in\mathbb{R}^2\), belongs to \({\mathcal H}^m\) for given \(m= 1,2,\dots,\infty\), if it satisfies \[ H\in C^m(T\times V),\quad \nabla_zH(t,0)= 0,\quad\forall t\in \mathbb{R}. \] We denote by \({\mathcal A}^m\) the class composed by the germs at zero of mappings \(F: U\subset \mathbb{R}^2\to \mathbb{R}^2\), \(z\mapsto z_1= F(z)\), defined in some open neighbourhood \(U\) of \(0\in\mathbb{R}^2\) and such that \[ F(0)= 0,\quad F\in C^m(U,\mathbb{R}^2),\quad \text{det }F'(z)= 1,\quad \forall z\in U. \] It is stated that if \(F\in{\mathcal A}^\infty\), \(F= (F_1, F_2)\) is a mapping with \(F'(0)= \left(\begin{smallmatrix} 1 & 1\\ 0 & 1\end{smallmatrix}\right)\) that satisfies \[ {\partial^{h+k}\over \partial x^h\partial x^k} F(0)= 0\quad\text{if }2\leq h+ k<n,\quad {\partial^n F_2\over\partial x^n} (0,0)\neq 0\quad\text{for some }n\geq 2, \] then the equilibrium \(z=0\) is stable if \(n\) is odd and \({\partial^nF_2\over\partial x^n} (0,0)< 0\) and it is unstable otherwise. Two corollaries of this result are employed later to discuss the stability of the equilibrium of certain periodic differential equations of Newtonian type by associating two certain numbers \(\sigma= \sigma(A)\) and \(\nu= \nu(A)\), \(\sigma,\nu\in \{-1,0,1\}\), to each parabolic matrix \(A\). More exactly, it is considered the periodic differential equation \[ \ddot x+ a(t)x+ c(t) x^{2n+1}+ r(t, x)= 0,\quad n\geq 1,\tag{2} \] where the function \(a,c: T\to\mathbb{R}\) are continuous, \(c\) is not identically zero and the remainder \(r: T\times(-r,r)\to \mathbb{R}\) is of class \(C^{0,\infty}\) with \[ {\partial^mr\over\partial x^m} (t,0)= 0,\quad t\in \mathbb{R},\quad m= 0,1,\dots, 2n+1. \] The main result shows that if the linear equation \(\ddot x+ a(t)x= 0\) is parabolic-unstable \((\nu\neq 0)\), then the solution \(x\equiv 0\) to (2) is stable if \(\sigma\nu\subset (t)\geq 0\), \(\forall t\in\mathbb{R}\), and unstable if \(\sigma\nu\subset(t)\leq 0\), \(\forall t\in\mathbb{R}\). Finally, the spectrum of Hill's equation and the pendulum of variable length are given as examples.