Limit cycles in the discontinuous planar piecewise linear systems with three zones (Q2239823)

The authors study the existence of limit cycles for the discontinuous planar piecewise linear systems with three zones separated by two parallel straight lines \(\Sigma=\Sigma_L\cup\Sigma_R=\{(x, y)\in \mathbb{R}^2: x=-1\}\cup\{(x, y)\in \mathbb{R}^2: x=1\}\). The subsystems are respectively called the left, the middle and the right system. Two cases are investigated. The first case is the boundary focus-center-boundary focus type. Namely, the equilibrium of the left (resp. right) system is a boundary focus on \(\Sigma_L\) (resp. \(\Sigma_R\)) and the equilibrium of the middle system is a linear center. The second case is the boundary focus-center-center type. Namely, the equilibrium of the left system is a boundary focus on \(\Sigma_L\) and the equilibrium of the middle (resp. right) system is a linear center. The limit cycles the authors consider are crossing limit cycles, namely, limit cycles that intersect \(\Sigma_L\) or \(\Sigma_R\) transversally. They prove that such systems can have at most three limit cycles. Two of them are of four intersection points type and the third one is of two intersection points type.