Vector fields with homogeneous nonlinearities and many limit cycles (Q2350026)

Consider planar real polynomial differential systems of the form \[ {dz\over dt}= Lz+ f_n(z), \] where \(L\) is a \(2\times 2\) matrix and \(f_n\) is a homogeneous vector field of degree \(n>1\). The authors improve known results about the number of limit cycles surrounding the origin. The proofs exploit the fact that each such limit cycle can be expressed in polar coordinates as \(r=R(\theta)\). The results include the cases that the origin is a focus, a node, a saddle or a nilpotent singularity. A mechanism for the bifurcation of limit cycles from infinity is also discussed.