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Asymptotic Integration of a Linear Fourth Order Differential Equation of Poincaré Type

This article deals with the asymptotic behavior of fourth order differential equation where the coefficients are perturbations of linear constant coefficient equation. We introduce a change of variable and deduce that the new variable satisfies a third order differential equation of Riccati type. We assume three hypothesis. The first is the following: all roots of the characteristic polynomial associated to the fourth order linear equation has distinct real part. The other two hypothesis are related with the behavior of the perturbation functions. Under this general hypothesis we obtain four main results. The first two results are related with the application of fixed point theorem to prove that the Riccati equation has a unique solution. The next result concerns with the asymptotic behavior of the solutions of the Riccati equation. The fourth main theorem is introduced to establish the existence of a fundamental system of solutions and to precise formulas for the asymptotic behavior of the linear fourth order differential equation.