On the motion of an oscillator with a periodically time-varying mass

The stability of the motion of an oscillator with a periodically time-varying mass is under consideration. The key idea is that an adequate change of variables leads to a newtonian equation, where classical stability techniques can be applied: Floquet theory for the linear oscillator, KAM method in the nonlinear case. To illustrate this general idea, first we have generalized the results of [W.T. van Horssen, A.K. Abramian, Hartono, On the free vibrations of an oscillator with a periodically time-varying mass, J. Sound Vibration 298 (2006) 1166–1172] to the forced case; second, for a weakly forced Duffing’s oscillator with variable mass, the stability in the nonlinear sense is proved by showing that the first twist coefficient is not zero.