Center condition and bifurcation of limit cycles for quadratic switching systems with a nilpotent equilibrium point (Q2232741)

In this paper, the authors study center conditions and bifurcation of limit cycles of the following planar switching quadratic system: \begin{align*} \left( \begin{array}{c} \dot{x} \\ \dot{y} \end{array} \right) = \left \{ \begin{array}{ll} \left( \begin{array}{c} y+a_{20} x^2 +a_{11} xy+a_{02} y^2 \\ b_{20} x^2 +b_{11} xy+b_{02} y^2 \end{array} \right) & \mbox{for } x> 0, \\ \left( \begin{array}{c} y+A_{20} x^2 +A_{11} xy+A_{02} y^2 \\ B_{20} x^2 +B_{11} xy+B_{02} y^2 \end{array} \right) & \mbox{for } x< 0, \end{array} \right.\tag{1} \end{align*} where \(\lambda:=(a_{20}, \cdots, b_{02}, A_{20}, \cdots, B_{02})\in \mathbb{R}^{12}\) is the vector representing the system parameters, and the \(y\)-axis is the unique switching line. Obviously, \((0, 0)\) is a nilpotent equilibrium of system (1). Furthermore, assume that \(b_{20}<0\) and \(B_{20}>0\). Thus \((0, 0)\) is a cusp of both subsystems of (1). Without loss of generality, assume that \(b_{20}=-1\) and \(B_{20}=1\). The authors present a new perturbation method based on the Bogdanov-Takens bifurcation theory to compute the Lyapunov constants of system (1). By analyzing the common zeros of those constants, they obtain six conditions under which \((0, 0)\) is a weak center of (1). Then they prove that at least seven small amplitude limit cycles can bifurcate from the weak center of (1) under small quadratic perturbations.