In physics, nonlinear resonance is the occurrence of resonance in a nonlinear system. In nonlinear resonance the system behaviour – resonance frequencies and modes – depends on the amplitude of the oscillations, while for linear systems this is independent of amplitude.
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Generically two types of resonances have to be distinguished – linear and nonlinear. From the physical point of view, they are defined by whether or not external force coincides with the eigen-frequency of the system (linear and nonlinear resonance correspondingly). The frequency condition of nonlinear resonance reads

with possibly different
being eigen-frequencies of the linear part of some nonlinear partial differential equation. Here
is a vector with the integer subscripts
being indexes into Fourier harmonics – or eigenmodes – see Fourier series. Accordingly, the frequency resonance condition is equivalent to a Diophantine equation with many unknowns. The problem of finding their solutions is equivalent to the Hilbert's tenth problem that is proven to be algorithmically unsolvable.
Main notions and results of the theory of nonlinear resonances are:[1]
appearing in various physical applications allows to find the solutions of frequency resonance condition.Nonlinear effects may significantly modify the shape of the resonance curves of harmonic oscillators. First of all, the resonance frequency
is shifted from its "natural" value
according to the formula

where
is the oscillation amplitude and
is a constant defined by the anharmonic coefficients. Second, the shape of the resonance curve is distorted (foldover effect). When the amplitude of the (sinusoidal) external force
reaches a critical value
instabilities appear. The critical value is given by the formula

where
is the oscillator mass and
is the damping coefficient. Furthermore, new resonances appear in which oscillations of frequency close to
are excited by an external force with frequency quite different from 
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