On the number of limit cycles near a homoclinic loop with a nilpotent singular point (Q2350024)

The authors study a planar system of differential equations of the form \[ x'=P(x)+\varepsilon p(x,y,\delta),\quad y'=Q(x)+R(x)y^2+\varepsilon q(x,y,\delta), \] where \(\varepsilon\) is a small parameter. It is assumed that \((0,0)\) is a nilpotent rest point of the unperturbed system having a homoclinic loop \(L\). They obtain an expansion of the Melnikov function near \(L\) and derive formulas for the expansion coefficients. It is shown that there exist integrable and reversible polynomial systems having at least 3, 4, or 5 limit cycles.