On the cyclicity of hyperbolic polycycles (Q7007103)

The notation used in this review is taken from the corresponding paper. \N\NConsider a planar smooth vector field \(X\) with a polycycle \(\Gamma^n\) with \(n\) sides and its corners (which are at most \(n\)) all hyperbolic saddles. Both polycycles formed by heteroclinic and/or homoclinic orbits are contained in their results. The authors provide a geometric method to give an explicit lower bound of \(n\) on the cyclicity of \(\Gamma^n\). This result extends several previous results and allows to understand the bifurcation of limit cycles from a polycycle by its change of stability. This stability is governed by the graphic number \(r\), which is a classical definition described in the paper. In the particular case that \(X\) is polynomial the authors prove the existence of a polynomial perturbation (in general with degree much higher that the one of \(X\)) that attains each of the obtained lower bounds for the cyclicity. The result is very general and can be applied to force the bifurcation of limit cycles from a polycycle.