A relation between small amplitude and big limit cycles. (Q1414921)

The authors investigate the control of the number of limit cycles that a differential equation or a family of differential equations can have, which is one of the most interesting and difficult problems in the theory of planar differential equations. There are two well-known methods for generating limit cycles and hence for giving lower bounds for the number of limit cycles. One is the degenerate Hopf bifurcation, which gives the so-called small amplitude limit cycles, and the other is the Poincaré-Melnikov method, which gives limit cycles that tend to some concrete periodic orbits of the Hamiltonian system when the perturbation goes to zero (i.e., big limit cycles). In this study, the authors relate both approaches when they study the number of limit cycles surrounding a nondegenerate critical point for a family of systems having a weak focus at the origin. It is revealed that both methods generate the same number of limit cycles. The families of differential equations explored here include the family of Liénard differential equations and the Hamiltonian systems with homogeneous nonlinearities. The authors also present a generalization of the Françoise algorithm [\textit{J. P. Françoise}, Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 16, 87--96 (1996; Zbl 0852.34008)], which is proved to be useful to get the Poincaré-Melnikov functions and the Lyapunov constants.