Persistence of periodic solutions from discontinuous planar piecewise linear Hamiltonian differential systems with three zones (Q2107667)

The authors investigate the existence of periodic solutions for a planar discontinuous system of differential equations, which is a perturbation of a piecewise linear Hamiltonian system possessing either a homoclinic loop or a heteroclinic orbit. It is assumed that the Hamiltonian system has a center in the central strip and saddle points in the other two regions. After applying linear transformations of the unperturbed system the authors construct a Melnikov function, whose zeroes correspond to periodic solutions of the system. Depending on the leading polynomial order of the perturbations it can be shown, that the equations admit up to 7 periodic solutions.