Limit cycles for a class of continuous and discontinuous cubic polynomial differential systems (Q489211)

The authors study limit cycles which bifurcate from the periodic orbits of the family of isochronous cubic polynomial centers \[ \dot x = y (-1+2 a x +2 \beta x^2), \quad \dot y= x+ \alpha (y^2-x^2) + 2 \beta x y^2, \;\;\alpha \in \mathbb{R}, \;\beta <0. \] The perturbations are sought inside the classes of all continuous and discontinuous cubic systems with two zones of discontinuity separated by a straight line. It is shown that 3 limit cycles bifurcate in the case of continuous perturbations and at least 12 for the discontinuous ones using the averaging method of first order.