A topological study of planar vector field singularities

Geometric methods in ordinary differential equations (34A26) Topological structure of integral curves, singular points, limit cycles of ordinary differential equations (34C05)

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The paper is devoted to a very classical problem: local phase portraits of planar vector fields near their isolated singular points. The author presents an extension of the theory going back to H. Poincaré and developed by \textit{I. Bendixson} [Acta Math. 24, 1--88 (1901; JFM 31.0328.03)] and \textit{F. Dumortier} [J. Differ. Equations 23, 53--106 (1977; Zbl 0346.58002)]. The main result, which essentially extends the results obtained by the predecessors can be formulated as follows. For an integer \(k \ge 1\), let \((X,0)\) be a germ of a \(C^{2k+3}\) vector field at the origin of the real plane, which is an isolated singularity, not accumulated by periodic orbits of the field. Assume that the \((k-1)\)-jet of \((X,0)\) is zero but not the \(k\)-jet. Then, the germ \((X,0)\) is a focus, a node or admits a sectoral decomposition, where every orbit tending toward the origin, for positive or negative time, is a characteristic orbit. Moreover, the number of hyperbolic and elliptic sectors is bounded by \(2(k+1)\). It follows that the topological index of \((X,0)\) verifies from \(-k\) to \(k+2\) and that the number of possible phase portraits for \((X,0)\), up time orientation, is roughly bounded by \(2^{4(k+1)}\).

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