Higher order Poincaré-Pontryagin functions and iterated path integrals (Q819901)

Consider a nonintegrable foliation \(df-\varepsilon(Pdx+Qdy)=0\), where \(\varepsilon\) is a small parameter and \(f,P,Q\) are polynomials in the two variables \(x,y\). Assume that the unperturbed system \(df=0\) has an annulus of periodic trajectories \(\{\gamma(t)\}\), where \(\gamma(t)\subset\{f=t\}\) for \(t\in (a,b)\). The related first return map has the form \[ {\mathcal P}(t,\varepsilon)=t+\varepsilon^k M_k(t) +\varepsilon^{k+1} M_{k+1}(t)+\ldots, \] where \(k\) is a natural number. The zeroes of the generating function \(M_k\) in \((a,b)\) correspond to the limit cycles produced by the period annulus after the perturbation. Here, the author takes an analytic continuation of the generating function and establishes several facts about it. It is proved that \(M_k(t)\) is a linear combination of iterated path integrals along \(\gamma(t)\) of length at most \(k\) over certain rational one-forms. \(M_k\) is a function of moderate growth and its monodromy representation is finite-dimensional. Moreover, \(M_k\) satisfies a linear differential equation of Fuchs type and its monodromy group is contained in \(\text{SL}(n,\mathbb{Z})\), where \(n\) is the order of the equation. One has \(n\leq r^k\), where \(r=\dim H_1(f^{-1}(t_0),{\mathbb Z})\) and \(t_0\) is a typical value of \(f\).