Ordinary Differential Equations and Applied Dynamics Commons^™

We study the differential equation ¨x(t) = a(t)V' (x(t)), where V is a double-well potential with minima at x = ±1 and a(t) → l > 0 as |t| → ∞. It is proven that under certain additional assumptions on a, there exists a heteroclinic solution x to the differential equation with x(t) → −1 as t → −∞ and x(t) → 1 as t → ∞. The assumptions allow l − a(t) to change sign for arbitrarily large values of |t|, and do not restrict the decay rate of |l −a(t)| as |t| → ∞.

A Hamiltonian system with a superquadratic potential is examined. The system is asymptotic to an autonomous system. The difference between the Hamiltonian system and the “problem at infinity,” the autonomous system, may be large, but decays exponientially. The existence of a nontrivial solution homoclinic to zero is proven. Many results of this type rely on a monotonicity condition on the nonlinearity, not assumed here, which makes the problem resemble in some sense the special case of homogeneous (power) nonlinearity. The proof employs variational, minimax arguments. In some similar results requiring the monotonicity condition, solutions inhabit a manifold homeomorphic to the …

We study a Hamiltonian system that has a superquadratic potential and is asymptotic to an autonomous system. In particular, we show the existence of a nontrivial solution homoclinic to zero. Many results of this type rely on a convexity condition on the nonlinearity, which makes the problem resemble in some sense the special case of homogeneous (power) nonlinearity. This paper replaces that condition with a different condition, which is automatically satisfied when the autonomous system is radially symmetric. Our proof employs variational and mountain-pass arguments. In some similar results requiring the convexity condition, solutions inhabit a submanifold homeomorphic to the …