Perturbations of quadratic centers of genus one (Q841390)

Suppose the first integral of a given planar system of ordinary differential equations with a center defines elliptic curves. This paper presents a program for answering the question of the maximum number of limit cycles that can bifurcate from the open period annulus under small perturbation of the system. In the quadratic case under consideration it is enough to consider suitable one-parameter (rather than multi-parameter) quadratic perturbations, here called essential perturbations, together with the corresponding generating functions, expressed as complete elliptic integrals. These were found in previous work of the third author and are reproduced here. Then the zeros of the generating functions, which determine the limit cycles that appear, are studied using tools from algebraic geometry. The ideas are applied to obtain the exact cyclicity of two families of reversible systems.