A system of 2 nonlinearly coupled ODEs which is explicitly solvable and possibly isochronous provided its coefficients are suitably restricted

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a special class of 2-dimensional nonlinear ODE systems with polynomial ratios, providing explicit solutions and conditions for isochronicity, expanding understanding of solvable and potentially periodic dynamical systems.

Contribution

It derives explicit formulas linking system coefficients to parameters, identifies constraints for solvability, and explores isochronous solutions within this class of nonlinear ODEs.

Findings

Explicit solutions for the initial value problem are obtained.

Conditions for the system to be isochronous are identified.

Several example systems are solved and analyzed.

Abstract

In this paper we discuss some remarkable properties of the autonomous system of 2 first-order Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs), which equates the derivatives $\dot{x}_n(t)$ ($n = 1, 2$) of the 2 dependent variables $x_n(t)$ to the ratios of polynomials (with constant coefficients) in the 2 variables $x_n (t)$: each of the 2 (a priori different) polynomials $P_3^{(n)}(x_1, x_2)$ in the 2 numerators is of degree 3; the 2 denominators are instead given by the same polynomial $P_1(x_1, x_2)$ of degree 1. Hence this system features 23 a priori arbitrary input numbers, namely the 23 coefficients defining these 3 polynomials. Our main finding is to show that if these 23 coefficients are given by 23 (explicitly provided) formulas in terms of 15 a priori arbitrary parameters, then the initial values problem (with arbitrary initial data $x_n (0)$) for this dynamical system can be explicitly solved. We also show that it is possible (with the help of Mathematica) to identify 12 explicit constraints on these 23 coefficients, which are sufficient to guarantee that this system belongs to the class of systems we are focusing on. Several such explicitly solvable systems of ODEs are treated (including the subcase with $P_1(x_1, x_2) = 1$, implying that the right-hand sides of the ODEs are just cubic polynomials: no denominators!). Examples of the solutions of several of these systems are reported and displayed, including cases in which the solutions are isochronous.