Limit cycles of non-autonomous scalar ODEs with two summands (Q1951420)

The authors extend previous results for the following family of scalar ordinary differential equations \[ x ' =a(t)g(x)+b(t)f(x) \] under the conditions that \(f(x)\) and \(g(x)\) are analytic functions and \(a(t)\), \(b(t)\) are \(T\)-periodic continuous functions for which there exist \(\alpha\), \(\beta\) such that \(\alpha a(t)+ \beta b(t)\) is not identically zero and does not change sign in \([0,T]\). The main result provides upper bounds for the number of limit cycles as isolated periodic solutions in the set of periodic solutions of the mentioned family as well as for the case \[ x ' =(a(t)x+b(t))f(x). \] As a consequence it is derived that generalized Abel equations \[ x ' =a(t)x^n +b(t)x^m, \] where \(n>m\geq1\) are natural numbers, have at most three limit cycles.