On the number of limit cycles in general planar piecewise linear differential systems with two zones having two real equilibria (Q2222378): Difference between revisions

One of the main problems in qualitative theory of dynamical systems is the second part of Hilbert's 16th problem which asks for the maximum number of limit cycles of planar polynomial vector fields. Due to their applications to many physical phenomena to determine the maximum number of limit cycles in planar piecewise linear ODEs with two zones separated by a straight line (PWLS\(s_2^{sl}\)) have been a topic of great interest for the mathematical community. The maximum value of the number of limit cycles that has been discovered for these systems is 3 but and it is still an open problem to know if 3 is the maximum number of limit cycles that these system can have. The investigation of the existence and number of limit cycles in planar PWLS\(s_2^{sl}\) is in fact a quite intricate problem and it must be studied case by case. In particular in this paper, a general family of planar PWLS\(s_2^{sl}\) which has a real focus in each zone is considered. By analyzing the number of zero points of a function related to the intersection points of the trajectories of the linear subsystems with the separation line the author obtains that the upper bound of the maximum number of crossing limit cycles for this family is two. Moreover, the author shows that the existence and number of crossing limit cycles in such systems not only depend on the eigenvalues and the equilibrium points of the linear subsystems in each zone, but also are subject to the distance between the tangent points and this implies that any canonical form of planar \(PWLSs_2^{sl}\) with focus-focus dynamics has at least 5 parameters. Also illustrating two concrete examples the author provides complete parameter regions for the existence of 1-2 limit cycles.