Putting a boundary to the space of Liénard equations (Q2372741)

The paper is devoted to the problem of finiteness of the upper bound \(L(n)\) for the number of limit cycles inside the Liénard family \[ \mathcal{L}_{a}^{n}\left\{\begin{matrix} \dot{x}=y- F_{a}^{n}(x)\\ \dot{y}=-x.\end{matrix} \right. \] where \(a=(a_{1},\ldots , a_{2n})\) and \(F_{a}^{n}(x)\) is the polynomial family \[ F_{a}^{n}(x)=\sum_{i=1}^{2n}a_{i}x^{i}+x^{2n+1}. \] The author considers the case of compact parameter region \(K\). The purpose of the paper is to show that this problem can be reduced to another one concerning slow-fast equations appearing as singular limits of the Liénard equations for large values of the parameters. Then the existence of a global bound \(L(n)\) can be related to the finiteness of the number of limit cycles which bifurcate from slow-fast cycles of these singular equations. But the conclusion of the paper concerning the conjecture of Lins Neto, de Melo and Pugh is contrary to the recent paper [\textit{F. Dumortier, D. Panazzolo}, and \textit{R. Roussarie}, ``More limit cycles than expected in Liénard equations.'' Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 135, No.~6, 1895--1904 (2007; Zbl 1130.34018)]