Limit cycles and integrability in a class of systems with high-order nilpotent critical points (Q370277)

The authors consider the family of planar analytic differential equations \[ x'=y+f(x^n,y), \] \[ y'=-x^{2n-1}+x^{n-1}g(x^n,y) \] with \(n\geq2\) and \(f\) and \(g\) starting at least with second order terms. They have a nilpotent critical point at the origin. They observe that when \(n\) is even the origin has to be a reversible center and that when \(n\) is odd the natural change of variables \(u=x^n\), \(v=y\) together with a time-reparametrization, write them as \[ u'=nv+nf(u,v), \] \[ v'=-u+g(u,v). \] Since the origin of these new systems is a non-degenerate weak-focus, any of the classical methods for computing Lyapunov constants can be applied to decide whether the origin is a center or a focus. The concrete example with \(f\) and \(g\) homogeneous of degree 3 is developed in the paper.