Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/ii/paper-1/7b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 1 7B Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The Bendixson-Dulac criterion says that if a planar field admits a multiplier on a simply connected region such that has one strict sign there, no nonconstant periodic orbit lies wholly in that region. The Poincaré-Bendixson theorem says that a nonempty compact omega-limit set of a planar flow which contains no equilibria is a periodic orbit.
For , the divergence of the given field is throughout the plane. Taking proves there are no periodic orbits.
For , use . Along trajectories,On a circle with the radial flow is outward or tangent, and on a circle with it is inward or tangent. Their intervening closed annulus is positively invariant. At the tangent points , the field has , so no equilibrium sits on its boundaries. Indeed the only equilibrium is the origin, excluded from the annulus. Every forward trajectory in the annulus has a nonempty compact omega-limit set without equilibria. The Poincaré-Bendixson theorem consequently proves at least one periodic orbit exists for every . No claim of uniqueness follows from this trapping argument.
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