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Purpose

The objective of this work is to study the periodic solutions for a class of sixth-order autonomous ordinary differential equations x(6)+(1+p2+q2)x… .+(p2+q2+p2q2)x¨+p2q2x=εF(x,ẋ,x¨,x…,x… .,x(5)), where p and q are rational numbers different from 1, 0, −1 and p ≠ q, ε is a small enough parameter and F ∈ C2 is a nonlinear autonomous function.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors shall use the averaging theory to study the periodic solutions for a class of perturbed sixth-order autonomous differential equations (DEs). The averaging theory is a classical tool for the study of the dynamics of nonlinear differential systems with periodic forcing. The averaging theory has a long history that begins with the classical work of Lagrange and Laplace. The averaging theory is used to the study of periodic solutions for second and higher order DEs.

Findings

All the main results for the periodic solutions for a class of perturbed sixth-order autonomous DEs are presenting in the Theorem 1. The authors present some applications to illustrate the main results.

Originality/value

The authors studied Equation 1 which depends explicitly on the independent variable t. Here, the authors studied the autonomous case using a different approach.

When studying the dynamics of differential systems following the analysis of their equilibrium points, we should study the existence or not of their periodic orbits.

The averaging theory is a classical tool for the study of the dynamics of nonlinear differential systems with periodic forcing. The averaging theory has a long history that begins with the classical work of Lagrange and Laplace. Details of the averaging theory can be found in the books of Verhulst [1] and Sanders and Verhulst [2]. The averaging theory is used to the study of periodic solutions for second and higher order differential equations (DEs) (see Refs [3–7]).

In [8], the authors studied the periodic solution of the following fifth-order differential equation:

(1)

where a = λμδ, b = −(λμ + λδ + μδ), c = λ + μ + δ + λμδ, d = −(1 + λμ + λδ + μδ), e = λ + μ + δ, ɛ is a small parameter and F ∈ C2 is 2π − periodic in t. Here, the variable x and the parameters λ, μ, δ and ɛ are real.

In [9], the authors studied equation (1) with F=F(x,ẋ,x¨,x…,x… .) which is autonomous. They studied the five cases.

In [10], the authors studied the periodic solution of the following sixth-order differential equation:

(2)

where p and q are rational numbers different from −1, 0, 1 and p ≠ q, ɛ is small enough real parameter and F ∈ C2 is a nonlinear nonautonomous periodic function.

Differential equations (DEs are one of the most important tools in mathematical modeling. For examples, the phenomena of physics, fluid and heat flow, motion of objects, vibrations, chemical reactions and nuclear reactions have been modeled by systems of DEs. Many applications of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) of different orders can be found in the mathematical modeling of real-life problems. Second- and third-order DEs can be found in Refs [11–14], and fourth-order DEs often arise in many fields of applied science such as mechanics, quantum chemistry, electronic and control engineering and also beam theory [15], fluid dynamics [16, 17], ship dynamics [18] and neural networks [19]. Numerically and analytically numerous approximations to solve such DEs of various orders have is studied in the literature. Most solutions of the mathematical models of these applications must be approximated.

The objective of this work is to study the periodic solutions for a class of sixth-order autonomous ordinary DEs:

(3)

where p and q are rational numbers different from −1, 0, 1, and p ≠ q, ɛ is small enough real parameter and F ∈ C2 is a nonlinear autonomous function.

In general, obtaining analytically periodic solutions of a differential system is a very difficult task, usually impossible. Recently, the study of the periodic solutions of sixth-order of DEs has been considered by several authors (see Refs [3, 20, 21]). Here, using the averaging theory, we reduce this difficult problem for the differential equation (3) to find the zeros of a nonlinear system of five equations. For more information and details about the averaging theory, see section (2) and the references quoted there.

In [10], the authors study the equation (2) where depends explicitly on the independent variable t. Here, we study the autonomous case using a different approach. We shall use the averaging theory to study the periodic solutions for a class of sixth-order autonomous differential equation (3).

Now, all our main results for the periodic solutions of equation (3) are as follows:

Theorem 1.

Assume that p, q are rational numbers different from 1, 0, − 1 and p ≠ q, in DE (3). For every positive simple (r0∗,Z0∗,U0∗,V0∗,W0∗) solution of the system,

(4)

satisfying

(5)

where

(6)

be withp = p1/p2, q = q1/q2, wherep1, p2, q1, q2are positive integersp≠q,p1,p2=q1,q2=1, letkbe the least common multiple ofp2andq2, and

(7)

There is a periodic solutionxt,εofequation (3)tending to the periodic solution

(8)

of the equationx(6)+(1+p2+q2)x… .+(p2+q2+p2q2)x¨+p2q2x=0, whenɛ → 0. Note that this solution is periodic of period 2πk.

Theorem 1 is proved in section 3. Two applications of Theorem 1 are as follows:

Corollary 2.

If F(x,ẋ,x¨,x…,x… .,x(5))=ẋ2+x¨2−x…, then the differential equation (3) with p=2,q=12 has four periodic solutions xi(t, ɛ) for i = 1, …, 4 tending to the periodic solutions

ofx(6)+214x… .+214x¨+x=0whenɛ → 0.

Corollary 2 is proved in section 5.

Corollary 3.

If F(x,ẋ,x¨,x…,x… .,x(5))=−ẋ2−2ẋ, then the differential equation (3) with p = 2, q = 3 has four periodic solutions xi(t, ɛ) for i = 1, …, 4 tending to the periodic solutions

ofx(6)+14x… .+49x¨+36x=0whenɛ → 0.

Corollary 3 is proved in section 5.

In this section, we present the basic results from the averaging theory that we shall need for proving the main results of this paper. We want to study the T-periodic solutions of the periodic differential systems of the form

(9)

with ɛ > 0 sufficiently small. The functions F0,F1:Ω×R→Rn and F2:Ω×R×(−ε0,ε0)→Rn are C2 functions, T -periodic in the variable t and Ω is an open subset of Rn⁠. We denote by x(z, t, ɛ) the solution of the differential system (9) such that x(z, 0, ɛ) = z. We assume that the unperturbed system

(10)

has an open set V with Cl(V) ⊂ Ω such that for each z ∈ Cl(V), x(t, z, 0) is T-periodic.

We consider the variational equation

(11)

of the unperturbed system on the periodic solution x(z, t, 0), where y is an n × n matrix. Let Mz(t) be the fundamental matrix of the linear differential system (11) such that Mz(0) is the n × n identity matrix. The next result is due to Malkin [22] and Roseau [23], for a shorter and easier proof see Ref. [24].

Theorem 4.

[Perturbations of an isochronous set] Consider the function F:Cl(V)→Rn

(12)
If there existsa ∈ VwithF(a)=0anddetdF/dz(a)≠0, then there exists aT-periodic solution of system(9)such that whenɛ → 0 we have thatx(0, ɛ) → a.

If y=x.⁠, z=x..⁠, u=x…⁠, v=x….⁠, w=x…..⁠, then system (3) can be written as

(13)

with ɛ = 0, system (13) has a unique singular point at the origin. The eigenvalues of the linear part of this system are ±i, ±pi and ±qi. By the linear inversible transformation,

(14)

where

We obtain the transformation of the system (13) as follows:

(15)

where G(X, Y, Z, U, V, W) = F(A, B, C, D, J, L) with

The linear part of the system (15) at the origin is in its real Jordan normal form and that the change of variables (14) is defined when p and q are different from 1, 0, −1 and p ≠ q because the determinant of the matrix of the change is −pq(p2−1)2(q2−1)2(p2−q2)2⁠. We pass from the cartesian variables (X, Y, Z, U, V, W) to the cylindrical variables (r, θ, Z, U, V, W) of R6⁠, where X = r cos θ and Y = r sin θ. In these new variables, the differential system (15) can be written as

(16)

where H(r, θ, Z, U, V, W) = F(a, b, c, d, j, l) with

Dividing by θ̇⁠, the system (16) becomes

(17)

where H = H(r, θ, Z, U, V, W).

We will now apply Theorem 4 to the system (17). We note that system (17) can be written as system (9) taking

System (17) with ɛ = 0 has the 2πk periodic solutions

for (r0, Z0, U0, V0, W0) with r0 > 0 and p = p1/p2, q = q1/q2, where p1, p2, q1, q2 are positive integers p≠q,p1,p2=q1,q2=1⁠, let k be the least common multiple of p2 and q2. To look for the periodic solutions of our equation (17), we must calculate the zeros α = (r0, Z0, U0, V0, W0) of the system F(α)=0⁠, where F(α) is given (12). The fundamental matrix M(θ) of the system (17) with ɛ = 0 along any periodic solution is

Now computing the function F(α) is given (12), we got that the system F(α)=0 can be written as

(18)

where

with A1,A2,A3,A4,A5⁠, and A6 as in the statement of Theorem 1.

If determinant (5) is nonzero, the zeros (r∗, Z∗, U∗, V∗, W∗) of system (18) with respect to the variable r, Z, U, V and W providing periodic orbits of system (17) with ɛ ≠ 0 small enough if they are simple. Going back to the change of variable, for all simple zero (r∗, Z∗, U∗, V∗, W∗) of system (18), we obtain a 2πk periodic solution x(t) of the differential equation (3) for ɛ ≠ 0 small enough such that

of x(6)+(1+p2+q2)x….+(p2+q2+p2q2)x..+p2q2x=0 when ɛ → 0, where k is defined in the statement of Theorem 1. Note that this solution is periodic of period 2πk. Theorem 1 is proved.

Consider the function

which corresponds to the case p = 2 and q=12⁠. The functions Fi = Fi(r0,Z0,U0,V0,W0) for i = 1, …, 5 of Theorem 1 are

System F1=F2=F3=F4=F5=0 has the four solutions:

Since the Jacobian

by Theorem 1equation (3) has the four periodic solution of the statement of the Corollary 2. □

Consider the function

which corresponds to the case p = 2 and q = 3. The functions Fi = Fi(r0,Z0,U0,V0,W0) for i = 1, …, 5 of Theorem 1 are

System F1=F2=F3=F4=F5=0 has the four solutions:

Since the Jacobian (5) for these four solutions (r0∗,Z0∗,U0∗,V0∗,W0∗) is

respectively, we obtain using Theorem 1, the four solutions given in statement of the Corollary 3.□

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Published in the Arab Journal of Mathematical Sciences. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Data & Figures

Supplements

References

1
Verhulst
 
F
.
Nonlinear differential equations and dynamical systems, universitext
.
New York
:
Springer
;
1996
.
2
Sanders
 
JA
,
Verhulst
 
F
.
Averaging methods in nonlinear dynamical systems, applied mathematical sciences
(Vol. 
59
).
New York
:
Springer
;
1985
.
3
Llibre
 
J
,
Yu
 
J
,
Zhang
 
X
.
Limit cycles for a class of third order differential equations
.
Rocky Mt J Math
.
2010
;
40
:
581
-
94
.
4
Llibre
 
J
,
Roberto
 
L
.
On the periodic orbits of the third order differential equation x…−μx..+x.−μx=εF(x,x.,x..)
.
Appl. Math. Letters
.
2013
;
26
(
4
):
425
-
30
.
5
Llibre
 
J
,
Makhlouf
 
A
.
Periodic orbits of the fourth-order non-autonomous differential equation u… .+qu¨+pu=εF(t,u,u̇,u¨,u…)
.
Appl Math Comput
.
2012
;
219
:
827
-
36
.
ISSN 0096-3003
.
6
Llibre
 
J
,
Makhlouf
 
A
.
On the limit cycles for a class of fourth-order differential equations
.
J Phys Math Gen
.
2012
;
45
(
55214
).
ISSN
 
1361-6447
.
7
Llibre
 
J.
and
Makhlouf
 
A.
,
Limit cycles for a class of fourth-order autonomous differential equations
,
Electron J Diff Equ
.
2012
;
2012
(
2022
):
1
-
17
.
ISSN 1072-6691
.
8
Sellami
 
N
,
Makhlouf
 
A
.
Limit cycles for a class of fifth-order differential equations
.
Ann Diff Eqs
.
2012
;
28
(
2
):
202
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19
.
9
Sellami
 
N
,
Mellal
 
R
,
Cherif
 
BB
,
Idris
 
SA
.
On the limit cycles for a class of perturbed fifth-order autonomous differential equations
.
Discrete Dyn Nat Soc
.
2021
:
18
.
Article ID 6996805
.
10
Makhlouf
 
A
,
Berhail
 
C
.
Limit cycles of the sixth-order non-autonomous differential equation
.
Arab J Math Sci
.
2012
;
18
:
177
-
87
.
11
Afuwape
 
AU
.
Remarks on Barbashin-Ezeilo problem on third-order nonlinear differential equations
.
J Math Anal Appl
.
2006
;
317
:
613
-
19
.
12
Esmailzadeh
 
E
,
Ghorashi
 
M
,
Mehri
 
B
.
Periodic behavior of a nonlinear dynamical system
.
Nonlinear Dynam
.
1995
;
7
:
335
-
44
.
13
Llibre
 
J
,
Perez-Chavela
 
E
.
Limit cycles for a class of second order differential equations
.
Phys Lett A
.
2011
;
375
:
1080
-
3
.
14
Moatimid
 
G
,
Elsabaa
 
F
,
Zekry
 
M
.
Approximate solutions of coupled nonlinear oscillations: stability analysis
.
J Appl Comput Mech
.
2021
;
7
(
2
):
382
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95
.
15
Jator
 
SN
.
Numerical integrators for fourth order initial and boundary value problems
.
Int J Pure Appl Math
.
2008
;
47
(
4
):
563
-
76
.
16
Alomari
 
A
,
Anakira
 
NR
,
Bataineh
 
AS
,
Hashim
 
I
.
Approximate solution of nonlinear system of BVP arising in fluid flow problem
.
Math Probl Eng
;
2013
;
2013
;
7d
 
136043
.
17
Kelesoglu
 
O
.
The solution of fourth order boundary value problem arising out.of the beam-column theory using Adomian decomposition method
.
Math Probl Eng
;
2014
.
18
Wu
 
X-J
,
WANG
 
Y
,
Price
 
W
.
Multiple resonances, responses, and parametric instabilities in offshore structures
.
J Ship Res
.
1988
;
32
:
285
.
19
Malek
 
A
,
Beidokhti
 
RS
.
Numerical solution for high order differential equations using a hybrid neural network-optimization method
.
Appl Math Comput
.
2006
;
183
:
260
.
20
Chaparova
 
J
,
Peletier
 
L
,
Tersian
 
S
.
Existence and nonexistence of nontrivial solutions of semilinear sixth order ordinary differential equations
.
Appl Math Lett
.
2004
;
17
:
1207
-
12
.
21
Garbuza
 
T
.
Results for sixth order positively homogeneous equations
.
Math Model Anal
.
2009
;
14
(
1
):
25
-
32
.
22
Malkin
 
IG
.
Some Problems of the theory of nonlinear oscillations
.
Gosudarstv Izdat Tehn-teor Lit Mosc
.
1956
(
in Russian
).
23
Roseau
 
M
.
Vibrations non linéaires et thérie de la stablité, Springer tracts in natural philosophy
(Vol. 
8
).
New York
:
Springer
;
1985
.
24
Buica
 
A
,
Françoise
 
JP
,
Llibre
 
J
.
Periodic solutions of nonlinear periodic differential systems with a small parameter
.
Comm Pure Appl Anal
.
2006
;
6
:
103
-
11
.
25
Liu
 
C
.
Qualitative properties for a sixth-order thin film equation
.
Math Model Anal
.
2010
;
15
(
4
):
457
-
71
.

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