A unified concept of periodicity on any time scale and applications

We introduce a novel definition of periodicity on arbitrary time scales, dependent on a strictly increasing and differentiable function. This removes the commonly used and restrictive assumption of a periodic time scale to define periodic functions. Our new definition furthermore allows for a wider class of functions to be studied using the theory of periodic systems. After providing crucial properties of these periodic functions, such as the translation invariance of integrals of periodic functions, we apply the concept of this new periodicity to linear dynamic equations. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a linear dynamic equation to have such a periodic solution and discuss its uniqueness.