Perturbations of parallel flows on the sphere in \(\mathbb R^3\) (Q2518290)

The authors consider a three-dimensional system of the form \[ \dot{x}=y,\quad \dot{y}=-x\quad\text{ and }\;\dot{z}=0\tag{1} \] which has a first integral of the form \(x^2+y^2+z^2=h\). For each \(h>0\) the equation \(x^2+y^2+z^2=h\) defines a sphere in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) and the differential system (1) defines a parallel flow on this sphere. Now the authors consider perturbations of system (1) by homogeneous polynomials of degree \(m\) with \(m \geq 2\), and obtain a least upper bound of the number of limit cycles appearing on the sphere by using the Poincaré map and the averaging method. More precisely, the number \(m-2\) is the least upper bound of the number of limit cycles for the perturbed system on the sphere at first order in the averaging method.