Periodic solutions of weakly coupled superlinear systems (Q897794)

The existence of infinitely many periodic solutions (harmonic and subharmonic, with prescribed nodal properties) is proved for a system of second order ODEs, having an equilibrium point at the origin and (weakly coupled) superlinear growth at infinity. In this way, previous classical results by Hartman and Jacobowitz for scalar second order ODEs are generalized to the case of systems. The proof relies on a higher dimensional version of the Poincaré-Birkhoff fixed point theorem, recently obtained by \textit{A. Fonda} and \textit{A. J. Ureña} in [``A higher dimensional Poincaré-Birkhoff theorem for Hamiltonian flows'', Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré C, Nonlinear Anal. (to appear)]. As in the scalar case, a key role is played by deriving careful a-priori bounds for the rotations of the solutions in the phase-plane.