On the number of limit cycles which appear by perturbation of Hamiltonian two-saddle cycles of planar vector fields (Q2430806)

In this interesting paper, the author sets up an upper bound for the maximal number of limit cycles which bifurcate from a contour \(\Gamma_2\) of an analytic Hamiltonian vector field, containing two hyperbolic saddles, under an analytic deformation. A new idea is proposed in the paper. Instead of using the asymptotic expansions of the corresponding Dulac maps \(d^1_\lambda\) and \(d^2_\lambda\), the author shows that the zero locus of the imaginary part of the Dulac map is a real analytic curve in \({\mathbb C}={\mathbb R}^2\) at the origin. Hence, it is possible to count the number of zeros of the imaginary part of \(d^1_\lambda-d^2_\lambda\) along the zero locus of the imaginary part of \(d^1_\lambda\) and eventually apply Petrov's method. The upper bound for the cyclicity of \(\Gamma_2\) is then given in terms of the characteristic numbers of the holonomies associated to \(\Gamma_2\). Hopefully, the author's approach could also be used to handle the case \(\Gamma_k\) of contour having an arbitrary number \(k\) of hyperbolic saddles.