 Second-order resonance from quadratic oscillator coupling

Two fundamental harmonics of frequency one multiply into only a constant and second harmonics. The first-order solvability condition in the method of multiple scales therefore has no amplitude-changing resonant coupling. Their first-order particular corrections can mix back into the fundamental at second order, selecting the possible scale $t=O({ϵ}^{-2})$. Detuning may suppress the resulting resonance, so identifying this scale alone does not prove instability for every initial state.