Periodic solutions of ordinary differential equations with bounded nonlinearities (Q701324)

The author seeks existence conditions for the boundary value problem \[ \ddot u+ g(u)= e,\quad u(0)= u(T),\quad \dot u(0)=\dot u(T),\quad T> 0,\quad e(t+ T)= e(t),\tag{1} \] \[ \max|g|\leq M=\text{const}., \] and considers the case of a nonoscillatory \(g\) with \(g(0)\neq 0\), \(g\to 0\) as \(u\to\pm\infty\) to be particularly interesting. The argument is based on the parametric imbedding of (1) into \[ \ddot w+ g(w+ c)= E+\lambda,\quad E(t+ T)= E(t),\quad c=\text{const}.,\quad\lambda= \text{const}.\neq 0.\tag{2} \] The parameter \(\lambda\) is called a Lagrange multiplier, although it is not one in any traditional sense. The functional spaces of \(u(t)\) and \(w(t)\) are not the same. No concrete solution is constructed.