A continuation result for forced oscillations of constrained motion problems with infinite delay

We prove a global continuation result for $T$-periodic solutions of a $T$-periodic parametrized second order retarded functional differential equation on a boundaryless compact manifold with nonzero Euler-Poincare' characteristic. The approach is based on the fixed point index theory for locally compact maps on ANRs. As an application, we prove the existence of forced oscillations of retarded functional motion equations defined on topologically nontrivial compact constraints. This existence result is obtained under the assumption that the frictional coefficient is nonzero, and we conjecture that it is still true in the frictionless case.