An estimate of the number of periodic solutions of the Abel equation (Q2388005)

The authors study the periodic solutions (real or complex) of the Abel equation \[ y'=a(x)y+b(x)y^2+c(x)y^3, \] where \(x\in {\mathbb R}\) and \(a,b,c\) are \(2\pi\)-periodic analytic functions. Let \(x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_s\) be the zeroes of \(b(x)\) in \([0,2\pi]\) and let among the quantities \(c(x_1),\ldots,c(x_s)\), \(r\) be positive and \(s-r\) be negative ones. Then, there are at most \(3+ \text{ min}(r, s-r)\) real positive periodic solutions of the equation, and the number of all periodic solutions (except \(y\equiv 0\)) is at most \(6+2 \text{ min}(r, s-r)\). It is well known that if either of the coefficients \(b\), \(c\) does not change sign, then the Abel equation has at most 3 periodic solutions (\textit{N.G. Lloyd} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 27, 667-700 (1973; Zbl 0273.34042)]; \textit{A. Lins-Neto} [Invent. Math. 59, 67-76 (1980; Zbl 0448.34012)]; \textit{A. Gasull} and \textit{J. Llibre} [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 21, 1235-1244 (1990; Zbl 0732.34025)]).