On the Poincaré-Bendixson index theorem for a class of piecewise linear differential systems (Q6081668)

The motivation of the present paper is to show the validation of the Poincaré-Bendixson index theorem for piecewise linear system \[ \begin{aligned} \frac{dx}{dt} &= x - y - 1/2, \frac{dy}{dt} = x - y \text{ if } x > 0, \\ \frac{dx}{dt} &= -x - y, \qquad \frac{dy}{dt} = 3x + 3y - 1 \text{ if } x < 0. \end{aligned} \] This system was constructed in a recent paper [\textit{J. Llibre} and \textit{M. A. Teixeira}, Nonlinear Dyn. 88, No. 1, 157--164 (2017; Zbl 1373.34050)], where it is proved that the system has neither real singular points nor virtual singular points, but it can have a limit cycle. This example contradicts with the classical Poincaré-Bendixson index theorem for smooth systems at first glance. In the presented paper the authors reconsider the introduced system by using a regularization process which is an approximation of the piecewise differential systems by a one-parameter family of continuous differential systems. Their results show that there are three \(\sum\)-singular points inside the limit cycle, and the sum of the indices at these singular points is \(1\). It supports the Poincaré-Bendixson index theorem for such piecewise linear differential systems.