Bifurcation of limit cycles from generalized homoclinic loops in planar piecewise smooth systems (Q2436398)

The authors consider planar piecewise smooth differential systems of the form \[ \begin{aligned} & \dot{x} \, = \, f(x,y) + \varepsilon p(x,y), \\ & \dot{y} \, = \, g(x,y) + \varepsilon q(x,y),\end{aligned} \] where \[ f(x,y) \, = \, \begin{cases} f^{+}(x,y), x \geq 0, \\ f^{-}(x,y), x<0, \end{cases} \quad g(x,y) \, = \, \begin{cases} g^{+}(x,y), x \geq 0, \\ g^{-}(x,y), x<0, \end{cases} \] \[ p(x,y) \, = \, \begin{cases} p^{+}(x,y), x \geq 0, \\ p^{-}(x,y), x<0, \end{cases} \quad q(x,y) \, = \, \begin{cases} q^{+}(x,y), x \geq 0, \\ q^{-}(x,y), x<0,\end{cases} \] with \(f^{\pm}\), \(g^{\pm}\), \(p^{\pm}\), \(q^{\pm} \in C^{\infty}\), and \(\varepsilon\) a small parameter. The authors study the bifurcation of limit cycles from isolated \textit{generalized homoclinic loops}. This kind of periodic limit sets were defined and classified in [\textit{F. Liang} and \textit{M. Han}, Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos Appl. Sci. Eng. 23, No. 2, Article ID 1350027, 15 p. (2013; Zbl 1270.34104)]. According to the authors, a point \(A\) on the \(y\)-axis is called a generalized singular point if \(f^{+}(A)f^{-}(A) \leq 0\) and a closed curve \(L\) is called a generalized homoclinic loop if it consists of a generalized singular point and a regular orbit of the system with \(\varepsilon=0\). Under the assumption that the system with \(\varepsilon=0\) has a homoclinic loop \(L\) with a generalized singular point \(A\) which is not a singular point of the right or left systems, the authors provide five cases of generalized homoclinic loops to be analyzed. The paper contains three main theorems devoted to the study of bifurcation of limit cycles from the homoclinic loop \(L\). Theorem 1.1 establishes that in the first two cases at most one limit cycle can bifurcate from the corresponding generalized homoclinic loop and that there are systems which exhibit such a bifurcation. Theorems 1.2 is devoted to the third and fourth cases and shows that at most two limit cycles can bifurcate from the corresponding generalized homoclinic loop and that there are systems which do have two limit cycles. Last Theorem 1.3 deals with the fifth case in which the notion of multiplicity of the homoclinic loop \(L\) can be defined analogously to the smooth case. Theorem 1.3 establishes that there are generalized homoclinic loops \(L\) of multiplicity \(1\) for which two limit cycles can be bifurcated. The paper ends with five illustrative examples.