Restricted independence in displacement function for better estimation of cyclicity (Q2400586)

Consider a family of analytic differential equations \[ \dot x = \alpha x - y + P(x, y, \lambda), \quad\dot y = x + \alpha y + Q(x, y, \lambda), \] in which \(P\) and \(Q\) have no constant or linear terms in \(x\) and \(y\) and depend on \(\lambda \in {\mathbb R}^m\) in a polynomial fashion. A lower bound on the cyclicity of a center of the system at the origin for \(\alpha = 0\) can be obtained when it is known that the first \(k\) odd-indexed focal values are independent, and there are various methods for establishing such independence. In this paper a new method is developed which can sometimes give an increased lower bound on the cyclicity. The idea is to find a suitable curve \(c(\eta)\) in the space \({\mathbb R}^{m+1}\) of parameters \((\alpha, \lambda)\) for which the focal values depend on \(\eta\) in such a way that one can readily determine the number of independent sign changes that can be created in the displacement function moving along the curve. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by means of an example.