Perturbations of the non-generic quadratic Hamiltonian vector fields with hyperbolic segment (Q5932242)

The authors study the number of limit cycles that can appear under a quadratic perturbation of a period annulus and the corresponding center of a quadratic Hamiltonian vector field. For the generic case, it was known that at most two limit cycles can appear . The main result of the paper under review states that the same bound holds for the nongeneric cases that are given by Iliev's normal form for the unperturbed cubic Hamiltonian. The proof of this result is obtained by constructing and analyzing appropriate Picard-Fuchs equations for the Abelian integrals that naturally arise from the study of the return map associated with the period annulus.