A non-existence result for periodic solutions of the relativistic pendulum with friction (Q6112134)

The author considers the so-called relativistic pendulum equation \[ \left(\frac{x'}{\sqrt{1-\frac{x'^2}{c^2}}}\right)'+kx'+a\sin x=p(t), \] where \(c > 0\) is the speed of light in the vacuum, \(k \ge 0\) is a possible viscous friction coefficient, \(a > 0\) and \(p(t)\) is a continuous and \(T\)-periodic forcing term with zero mean value. He first reports a non-existence result for the the \(T\)-periodic problem associated with the classical Newtonian equation \[ x''+kx'+a\sin x=p(t), \] and then proves that, for the same coefficients, also the relativistic pendulum equation has no \(T\)-periodic solutions, provided that \(c\) is large enough.