On the number of limit cycles for a class of discontinuous quadratic differential systems (Q504853)

The paper studies one of the four real planar autonomous quadratic isochronous centers, namely, \[ \dot{x}=-y + \frac{16}{3} x^2 -\frac{4}{3} y^2, \qquad \dot{y}= x + \frac{8}{3} xy \] under the discontinuous perturbations \[ \begin{pmatrix} \dot{x} \\ \dot{y} \end{pmatrix}=\begin{cases}\begin{pmatrix} -y + \frac{16}{3} x^2 -\frac{4}{3} y^2 + \varepsilon P_1(x,y) \\ x + \frac{8}{3} xy + \varepsilon Q_1(x,y) \end{pmatrix}, & \quad x>0, \\ \begin{bmatrix} -y + \frac{16}{3} x^2 -\frac{4}{3} y^2 + \varepsilon P_2(x,y)\\ \displaystyle x + \frac{8}{3} xy + \varepsilon Q_2(x,y) \end{bmatrix}, & \quad x<0, \end{cases} \] where \(0<|\varepsilon|<<1\) and \(P_i(x,y)\) and \(Q_i(x,y)\) are quadratic polynomials in the variables \(x\), \(y\). The main goal of this paper is to give a sharp upper bound of the number of limit cycles that bifurcate for \(\varepsilon\) close to \(0\). The techniques used are averaging theory of first order and the use of the Chebyshev criterion in order to bound a linear combination of functions. Under these assumptions, the obtained sharp upper bound is that at most \(5\) limit cycles can bifurcate for \(\varepsilon\) close to \(0\). Several very good chosen changes of variables are used in the proof. This gives an answer of an open problem posed in [\textit{J. Llibre} and \textit{A. C. Mereu}, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 413, 763--775 (2014; Zbl 1318.34049)].