Periodic, subharmonic, and quasi-periodic oscillations under the action of a central force (Q628762)

Some interesting features of plane systems involving a non-autonomous central force \[ \ddot x=-f(t,|x|)\frac{x}{|x|},\quad x\in{\mathbb R}^2\setminus\{0\}\tag{1} \] are studied under mild assumptions on the (attractive) force: \(f\) is supposed to be ``positive'' in some generalized sense (allowing it to change sign), and depends \(T\)-periodically on the time \(t\); also, \(\lim_{r\to\infty}\frac{f(t,r)}{r}=0\) for a.e. \(t\in {\mathbb R}\). A solution in polar coordinates \(r(t)(\cos\theta(t), \sin\theta(t))\) is called \(T\)-radially periodic if \(r(t)\) is \(T\)-periodic and there exist \(\omega\in{\mathbb R}\) (the ``rotation number'') and a \(T\)-periodic function \(p(t)\) such that \(\theta(t)=\omega t+p(t)\). Among other results, the authors prove that: (i) there exists a connected subset \({\mathcal C}\) of \(T\)-radially periodic solutions \(x(t)\) of (1) such that the minimum distance to the origin \(\min |x(t)|\), as \(x\) runs through \({\mathcal C}\), is unbounded from above; moreover, either the set of such minima is the whole interval \(]0,\infty[\) or \({\mathcal C}\) contains some solution that lives along a ray; (ii) there are \(T\)-radially periodic solutions \(x(t)\) with arbitrary small rotation numbers \(\omega\) so that their amplitude goes to infinity and the ratio \(\frac{\min r}{\max r}\) approaches \(1\) as \(\omega\to0\) (these may be seen as reminiscent of ``Copernican'' orbits). The proofs use a reduction to a singular periodic boundary value problem for \(r\) with angular momentum as parameter. This is then studied, via a Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction, as a fixed point equation, treated by a continuation technique.