A note on existence and uniqueness of limit cycles for Liénard systems (Q557030)

The authors are concerned with the existence and uniqueness of limit cycles for the celebrated Liénard equation \[ \ddot{x}+f(x)\dot{x}+g(x)=0, \] where \(f:\mathbb{R\to R}\) is a continuous function and \(g:\mathbb{R\to R}\) is locally Lipschitzian. To guarantee that the origin is the only critical point of the associated Liénard system \[ \dot{x} =y-F(x),\qquad \dot{y} =-g(x),\qquad F(x)=\int_{0}^{x}f(\tau)\,d\tau, \] which is repelling, it is assumed that \(f(0)<0,\) \(f(x)>0\) for \(| x| >\delta>0,\) and \(xg(x)>0\) for \(x\neq0.\) Let \(G(x)=\int_{0} ^{x}g(\tau)\,d\tau.\) The main result is the following: Theorem 1. Suppose that (i) \(F\) has only three transversal zeros located at \(x_{0}=0,\) \(x_{2}<0<x_{1}\) and \(F\) is monotone increasing outside the interval \([x_{2},x_{1}];\) (ii) \(G(x_{1})=G(x_{2});\) (iii) \(\limsup _{x\to+\infty}[ G(x)+F(x)] =+\infty\) and \(\limsup _{x\to-\infty}[ G(x)-F(x)] =+\infty.\) Then the Liénard system has a unique stable periodic orbit in the \((x,y)\)-plane. Several applications of this result are considered. In particular, it is shown that if all conditions of Theorem 1 are satisfied except for (ii), one can slightly perturb the original system to obtain a new one which has a unique limit cycle. Furthermore, for a Liénard system which does not satisfy conditions of Theorem 1, it is shown that by introducing two parameters, one can prove the existence of a unique limit cycle for a new system.