On the cyclicity of weight-homogeneous centers (Q1016462)

The authors study limit cycles in a system of the form \[ \dot{x}=f(x,y)+\varepsilon Q(x,y,\varepsilon),\;\dot{y}=g(x,y)-\varepsilon P(x,y,\varepsilon) \] where \(P,Q\) are polynomials of degree \(d\) in \(x,y\) and analytical in the small parameter \(\varepsilon\). It is assumed that the unperturbed system has a center at the origin and is \((\alpha,\beta,\omega)\) weight-homogeneous which means that \[ f(\rho^\alpha x,\rho^\beta y)=\rho^{\omega+\alpha}f(x,y),\;g(\rho^\alpha x,\rho^\beta y)=\rho^{\omega+\beta}g(x,y). \] Provided that the first term \(M_1(x)\), \((x>0)\) in the expansion with respect to \(\varepsilon\) of the first return map is not identically zero, the authors prove that there are at most \((d+1)(d+4)/2-1\) limit cycles in the perturbed system which tend to periodic orbits as \(\varepsilon\) tends to zero. An example with \(f=y+x^{2n}\), \(g=2ncx^{4n-1}\) and \(P,Q\) of degree at most \(4n-1\) is considered. Here, \((\alpha,\beta,\omega)=(1,2n,2n-1)\). For it, there are at most \(3n^2+n-1\) limit cycles tending to periodic orbits and there are perturbations with at least \(2n^2+n-1\) such limit cycles. The results are established by clarifying the structure of \(M_1\).