Limit cycles for \(m\)-piecewise discontinuous polynomial Liénard differential equations (Q2342150)

The authors study the \(m\)-piecewise discontinuous system \[ \dot x = y +\mathrm{sgn}(g_m(x,y))F(x,y), \;\quad \dot y= - x, \eqno{(1)} \] where \(F(x)\) is a polynomial of degree \(n\), \(\mathrm{sgn}(x) \) is the sign function and the zero set of the function \(\mathrm{sgn}(g_m(x,y))\) (\(m=2,4,6,\dots\)) is the product of \(m/2\) straight lines passing through the origin and dividing the plain into sectors of angle \(2\pi/m\). Let \(L(m,n) \) be the lower upper bound for the maximum number of limit cycles of system (1) (that means the system can have \(L(m,n) \) limit cycles if the right-hind side of (1) is chosen appropriately). The main result of the paper is a theorem stating that \( L(0,n)=[(n-1)/2], \quad L(2,n)=[n/2], \quad L(4,n)=[(n-1)/2]. \) It is also conjectured that \( L(m,n)=[ (n/2- (m-2)/4)], \) if \(m=6,8,10,\dots\).