Bifurcations of small limit cycles in Liénard systems with cubic restoring terms (Q2415284)

Consider the planar system \[ \frac{dx}{dt}=y+F(x),\ \frac{dy}{dt}=-x(1-2x+ax^2)\tag{\(*\)} \] with \(a\ne 0\), \(F(0)=0\), such that the origin is an equilibrium point of (\(*\)). The maximum number of limit cycles which can bifurcate from the origin of system (\(*\)) is called the Hopf cyclicity of system (\(*\)). The authors study this cyclicity and get the following results. Theorem 1. Suppose that \(F(x)\) is a real polynomial in \(x\) of degree \(n\) and \(a=8/9\). Then the Hopf cyclicity of (\(*\)) is \(\left[\frac{3n-1}{4}\right]\). Suppose that \(F\) is discontinuous at \(x=0\) and has the structure \[ F(x)=\begin{cases} \sum^n_{k=1}a^+_kx^k\quad &\text{for }x>0,\\ \sum^m_{k=1}a^-_kx^k\quad &\text{for }x\le 0.\end{cases}\tag{\(**\)} \] In that case it holds Theorem 2. Suppose that \(F\) is defined by (\(**\)) and \(a=8/9\), then the Hopf cyclicity of (\(*\)) is \[ \left[\frac{2m+n-1}{2}\right]\text{ for }m\ge n,\ \left[\frac{2n+m-1}{2}\right]\text{ for }n<m. \] For general \(a\) it holds Theorem 3. Suppose that \(F\) is defined by (\(**\)) and \(m=n\le 30\). Then the Hopf cyclicity of (\(*\)) is \[ 2n-1-\left[\frac{n-4}{4} \right]. \] The proof is based on the concept of involution: if \(g\) is analytic, \(G(x)=\int^x_0g(s)ds\) and if there is an analytic function \(\alpha(x)=-x+O(x^2)\) satisfying \(G(\alpha(x))=G(x)\) for \(|x|\ll 1\), then \(\alpha\) is called an involution.