The number of polynomial solutions of polynomial Riccati equations (Q738719)

The authors deal with the Riccati differential equation \[ a(x) y'=b_0(x)+b_1(x)y+b_2(x)y^2 \] and obtain the following two main results: (1) If all coefficients are polynomials of degree at most \(\eta\), then the maximum number of polynomial solutions is \(\eta +1\) when \(\eta \geq 1\), and \(2\) when \(\eta =0\); (2) If the coefficients are real trigonometric polynomials of degree at most \(\eta\), then the maximum number of trigonometric polynomial solutions is \(2\eta\) when \(\eta \geq 2\), and \(3\) when \(\eta =1\). It is shown that these bounds are sharp. The proof of both results starts from the classical property that asserts that the cross ratio of four different solutions of a Riccati differential equation is constant.