Perturbations of quadratic centers (Q1384231)

This paper addresses the bifurcation of limit cycles from a center of a quadratic system. More precisely, consider a quadratic system \[ \dot x=f(x,y),\qquad \dot y=g(x,y), \] with a rest point at the origin that is surrounded by an annulus of periodic solutions and the perturbed system \[ \dot x=f(x,y)+\varepsilon P(x,y,\varepsilon),\qquad \dot y=g(x,y)+\varepsilon Q(x,y,\varepsilon), \] where \(P\) and \(Q\) are quadratic polynomials in the space variables. The question is: How many of the periodic orbits surrounding the center of the original quadratic system persist as limit cycles for \(\varepsilon\neq 0\)? This is a difficult unsolved problem that has received a great deal of attention. The usual idea used to study this problem is to notice that the periodic orbits near the origin correspond to the zeros of a displacement function defined on a Poincaré section for the original period annulus. Indeed, if \(\xi\) is a real coordinate along such a Poincaré section, then the displacement function has the form \[ d(\xi,\varepsilon)=\varepsilon M(\xi)+O(\varepsilon^2) \] where \(M\) is the Andronov-Poincaré-Melnikov function. Thus, if \(M\) is not identically zero, then the simple zeros of \(M\) correspond to the continuable periodic orbits. Of course, to carry out this program, the coefficient \(M\) must be identified and then its simple zeros must be computed. Moreover, if \(M\) happens to be the zero function, then a higher-order leading coefficient must be computed and analyzed. It turns out that \(M\), or the leading order coefficient of the series representation for the displacement, can be represented by a line integral over the unperturbed periodic orbits where the integrand involves the perturbation, a first integral of the unperturbed system, and an integrating factor. Here, one of the main contributions is a complete characterization of appropriate forms for the integral representation of these leading order coefficients for all cases of quadratic centers together with a characterization of the ``essential'' perturbation terms that are required to obtain the maximum possible number of continuable periodic orbits for a general quadratic perturbation. An analysis of the number of continuable periodic orbits is carried out for two important cases of quadratic centers. In addition to the main results of the paper, that provides a framework for future research, the author gives a useful introduction to the literature on the subject of bifurcations of limit cycles from period annuli of quadratic systems.