On the number of limit cycles of some systems on the cylinder (Q2463626)

Consider autonomous systems on a cylinder \(\mathbb{Z}:=\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}/[0,2\pi]\) of the type \[ \begin{aligned} {dr\over dt} &= \alpha(\varphi)r+ \beta(\varphi) r^{k+1}+ \gamma(\varphi) r^{2k+1},\\ {d\varphi\over dt} &= b(\varphi)+ c(\varphi) r^k,\end{aligned}\tag{\(*\)} \] where \(k\) is a positive integer, and all functions are smooth. The authors derive bounds for the number of limit cycles of the second kind of \((*)\) (they are not contractible to a point) under the assumption that \(b(\varphi)\) has at least one zero. To this end they introduce the functions \[ \begin{aligned} A(\varphi) &:= k[c(\varphi)^2 \alpha(\varphi)+ b(\varphi)^2 \gamma(\varphi)- b(\varphi) \beta(\varphi) c(\varphi)],\\ B(\varphi) &:= -2k c(\varphi) \alpha(\varphi)+ kb(\varphi) \beta(\varphi)+ c(\varphi) b'(\varphi)- b(\varphi)c'(\varphi).\end{aligned} \] Their main result reads as follows: Theorem. (a) If one of the functions \(A\) or \(B\) does not change sign then system \((*)\) has at most 2 limit cycles of the second kind if \(k\) is odd, or at most 4 limit cycles of the second kind if \(k\) is even. Furthermore, both bounds are sharp. (b) If one of the functions \(bA\) or \(bB\) does not change sign then system \((*)\) has at most 3 limit cycles of the second kind if \(k\) is odd, or at most 6 limit cycles of the second kind if \(k\) is even.