Periodic solutions of the Rayleigh equation with damping of definite sign (Q910541)

Summary: The existence of a non-trivial periodic solution for the autonomous Rayleigh equation \(\ddot x+F(\dot x)+g(x)=0\) is proved, assuming conditions which do not imply that F(x)x has a definite sign for \(| x|\) large. A similar result is obtained for the periodically forced equation \(\ddot x+F(\dot x)+g(x)=e(t).\)