Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-differential-equations-and-applications-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/a/1/b/solution

Use the Poincaré-Lindstedt method. Introduce and . The leading equation gives and , after fixing the arbitrary phase. At order ,
Here . Periodicity requires the two resonant coefficients to vanish. With , this gives
Therefore the leading limit cycle is , with frequency . For example the nonresonant first correction contains ; its homogeneous sine/cosine pieces depend on phase and amplitude conventions. The absence of a first-order frequency shift is a solvability condition, not an assumption.

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