THE EXISTENCE OF PERIODIC AND SUBHARMONIC SOLUTIONS OF SUBQUADRATIC SECOND ORDER DIFFERENCE EQUATIONS

Abstract

By critical point theory, a new approach is provided to study the existence of periodic and subharmonic solutions of the second order difference equation $$\Delta^2 x_{n-1} +f(n, x_n)\,{=}\,0,$$ where $f\in C({\bf R}\times {\bf R}^m, {\bf R}^m), f(t+M,z)=f(t,z)$ for any $(t, z)\in {\bf R}\times{\bf R}^m$ and $M$ is a positive integer. This is probably the first time critical point theory has been applied to deal with the existence of periodic solutions of difference systems.This project is supported by TRATOYT of China and by the State Education Commission Trans-Century Training Program Foundation for the Talents.