The period function of potential systems of polynomials with real zeros

AbstractWe consider some analytic behaviors (convexity, monotonicity and number of critical points) of the period function of period annuli of the potential system x¨+g(x)=0 and focus on the case when g(x) is a polynomial whose roots are all real. The main contributions of this paper are twofold: (i) analytic behaviors are given for the period functions of period annuli surrounding one or more and simple or degenerate equilibria; (ii) as a nontrivial application of the general conclusions in (i), a purely analytical and shorter proof is provided for a result for the case degg=4 recently obtained by Chengzhi Li and Kening Lu with some help of computer algebra [Chengzhi Li, Kening Lu, The period function of hyperelliptic Hamiltonian of degree 5 with real critical points, Nonlinearity 21 (2008) 465–483]