On the structure of periodic solutions of differential equations

This paper studies the "internal structure" of the periodic solutions of differential equations with the aim of stating when they are constant functions. Yorke [21] and Lasota and Yorke [10] are the first works which show the existence, uńder certain conditions, of a lower bound for the period of non-constant solutions. As applications of the general results proved in Section 1 we obtain a negative solution to an open problem of Browder, the discovery that the periodic solutions ensured by Vidossich [17, Theorem 3.16], are constant functions, and conditions under which the periodic solutions of hyperbolic and parabolic equations are constant functions. Finally, we note that Li [11] applies the results of Section 1 to differential equations with delay. Various result of this paper point out a strong connection between the existence of periodic solutions of small period of x' = f( x) and the fact that the origin belongs to the range of f. This situation is explored in [19].