Bifurcation of critical periods of polynomial systems (Q2355414)

Consider the real two-dimensional system \[ \dot{u}=-v+P(u,v), \] \[ \dot{v}=u+Q(u,v), \] where \(P\) and \(Q\) are polynomial functions without constant or linear terms. The origin is either a center or a focus. In case it is a center, the period function \(T(r)\) is the least period of a periodic solution passing through \((r,0)\). When \(T\) is not a constant function, any \(r>0\) with \(T'(r)=0\) is called a critical period. The main interest is to estimate the number of critical periods that can arise near the center under small perturbations of the system within a family of systems that contains it. The authors present an approach that allows one to obtain upper bounds on the number of critical periods. The method is based on complexifying the system and apply the methods of computational commutative algebra. This approach is used to show that the upper bound is two for systems whose expression in complex form is \[ \dot{x}=i(x+a x^{2} + b x^{3} + c x^{2} \overline{x} + d x \overline{x}^{2}) \] and the upper bound is three for the equation \[ \dot{x}=i(x+a x^{3} + b x^{2} \overline{x}+ c x \overline{x}^{2} + d x \overline{x}^{3}) \]