Limit cycles near hyperbolas in quadratic systems (Q2378190)

This paper concerns the cyclicity of degenerate limit periodic sets in the phase portrait of the quadratic system \[ \dot x = -y + x^2,\quad \dot y = x(1 + y). \] These limit periodic sets are composed of a branch of an invariant hyperbola in the plane (the phase portrait contains entire strips of such invariant branches of hyperbolas) together with an arc of the circle at infinity in the Poincaré compactification (the circle at infinity is composed entirely of critical points). Specifically, the authors obtain upper bounds on the number of limit cycles that can be made to bifurcate from such limit periodic sets for large sets of admissible nearby quadratic systems. They employ Darboux's theory of first integrals and singular perturbation theory.