A generalization of the Levinson-Massera’s equalities

Abstract

In his study of non-linear differential equations of the second order, N. Levinson [3] defined the dissipative systems (D-systems) which arise in many important cases in practice. To a dissipative system a transformation T: R2 → R2 called the Poincaré transformation is associated. Levinson used the Poincaré transformation in the qualitative study of dissipative systems, and he [3] and Massera [5] obtained certain equalities between the number of subharmonic solutions of a dissipative systems under suitable conditions. We call these the Levinson-Massera’s equalities.