Homotopy Invariants of Time Reversible Periodic Orbits II. Towards Applications

For a reversible periodic orbitγwe apply the sequence of homotopy invariants degn(γ),n=1, 2, 3, …, defined in [Fiedler & Heinze] (1996), We use this sequence to prove a global bifurcation result for reversible periodic orbits with prescribed minimal period. This result will be applied to second order systems with Neumann boundary conditions. A discussion and remarks on the sequence of degrees concludes the paper