Crossing limit cycles for discontinuous piecewise linear differential centers separated by three parallel straight lines (Q6159152)

In this paper, the authors investigate the number of crossing limit cycles for planar continuous and discontinuous piecewise linear differential systems defined in four zones separated by three parallel straight lines given by \[ \Sigma=\{(x, y)\in \mathbb{R}^2: x=-p, x=0, x=q, p, q>0\}. \] The Filippov's convention is assumed for the solutions of the system on \(\Sigma\). Assume that each subsystem has a linear center. They prove that when the system is continuous, then it has no crossing limit cycles; when the system is discontinuous, then it can have at most four crossing limit cycles. They also present concrete examples of such systems with exactly zero, one and two crossing limit cycles. Consequently, they solve the extension of the 16th Hilbert problem to this class of piecewise differential systems. Nevertheless, it is still unknown if the exact upper bound on the number of crossing limit cycles for this class of piecewise differential systems is two, three or four. This is an open problem proposed by the authors.