A note on topological methods for a class of differential–algebraic equations

We study a particular class of autonomous Differential–Algebraic Equations that are equivalent to Ordinary Differential Equations on manifolds. Under appropriate assumptions we determine a straightforward formula for the computation of the degree of the associated tangent vector field that does not require any explicit knowledge of the manifold. We use this formula to study the set of harmonic solutions to periodic perturbations of our equations. Two different classes of applications are provided.