On a differential intermediate value property

Abstract

Liouville closed $H$-fields are ordered differential fields whose ordering and derivation interact in a natural way and where every linear differential equation of order $1$ has a nontrivial solution. (The introduction gives a precise definition.) For a Liouville closed $H$-field $K$ with small derivation we show: $K$ has the Intermediate Value Property for differential polynomials iff $K$ is elementarily equivalent to the ordered differential field of transseries. We also indicate how this applies to Hardy fields.