Isochronicity and linearizability of a planar cubic system (Q511290)

The object of study in this article is the family of planar systems of differential equations of the form \[ \dot x = -y + p_2(x,y) + x r_2(x,y), \;\dot y = x + q_2(x,y) + y r_2(x,y), \] where \(p_2\), \(q_2\), and \(r_2\) are homogeneous polynomials of degree 2. Conditions that such a system has a center at the origin, and conditions that it is isochronous, have been given in several earlier studies, although in some cases coordinate transformations used make it difficult to identify centers and isochronous centers for systems in their original form. Here, the authors view the system as being complex, with complex coefficients, and derive necessary and sufficient conditions that the system is linearizable, which in the real setting is equivalent to isochronicity. The computational burden is formidable, and by an ingenious use of earlier work on real systems they are able to carry through a key step, the irreducible decomposition of the so-called linearizability variety. They relate their work to that of previous studies when the condition that the coefficients actually to be real is imposed, clarifying the relationship between the results of previous studies.