Perturbations from an elliptic Hamiltonian of degree four. I: Saddle loop and two saddle cycles (Q5955606)

The authors study generalized Liénard equations of the form \[ \dot x=y,\quad\dot y=P(x)+yQ(x), \] with \(P\) and \(Q\) polynomials of degree 3 and 2, respectively, that are small perturbations of a Hamiltonian vector field with the elliptic Hamiltonian \(H\) of degree four \[ H(x,y)=y^2/2\pm x^4/4+a(x^3/3)+b(x^2/2),\quad (a,b)\in\mathbb{R}^2. \] Perturbations are given by adding \(\delta y(x^2+\beta x+\alpha) \frac{\partial}{\partial y}\) for small \(\delta >0\). The study of limit cycles involves calculating the zeros of the elliptic integrals, obtained by integrating the 1-form \(y(x^2+\beta x+\alpha) dx\) over the compact level curves of the Hamiltonian \(H\). It is well known that if the level curves of \(H\) contain compact components then there are five different types: the so-called cases of two saddle cycle, saddle loop, global center, cuspidal loop, and figure-eight loop. Besides some general results, the paper contains a complete treatment of the saddle loop case and the two saddle cycle case. It is proven that the elliptic integrals have at most two zeros, respectively one zero, the multiplicity taken into account. The bifurcation diagram of the zeros is obtained. In three forthcoming papers (one of the papers ``Perturbations from an elliptic Hamiltonian of degree four. II. Cuspidal loop'' is already published [J. Differ. Equations 175, No. 2, 209-243 (2001; Zbl 1034.34036)]), the authors intend to present an investigation of the cuspidal loop case, the global center case, and the figure-eight case, respectively.