Limit cycles for 3-monomial differential equations (Q2348493)

This article investigates the number of limit cycles in the phase portrait of a planar polynomial system of differential equations that can be written in complex form in the form \[ \dot z = A z + B z^k \bar z^\ell + C z^m \bar z^n \leqno {(1)} \] with \(A\), \(B\), \(C \in {\mathbb C}\); \(k\), \(\ell\), \(m\), \(n \in {\mathbb N} \cup \{ 0 \}\). The main result is that for any natural number \(p \geqslant 3\) there is a system of the form (1) with at least \(p\) limit cycles. To prove it they consider perturbations of a Hamiltonian system of the form (1) with \(m = 0\), \(k = n = p - 1\), and \(\ell = p - 2\), which has a rotational invariance of \(2 \pi / p\). A study of the quotient of two abelian integrals gives existence of a limit cycle surrounding a critical point not at the origin and rotational invariance yields the result. They also give conditions that members of certain subfamilies of (1) have either no limit cycles or exactly one limit cycle.