Invariant circles for homogeneous polynomial vector fields on the 2-dimensional sphere (Q997521)

Let \(X=P(x,y,z)\frac{\partial}{\partial x}+Q(x,y,z)\frac{\partial}{\partial y} +R(x,y,z)\frac{\partial}{\partial z}\) be a real polynomial vector field of degree \(n.\) It is said that it is a polynomial vector field on the sphere \({S}^2=\{(x,y,z)\in \mathbb{R}^3:x^2+y^2+z^2=1\}\) if \(xP(x,y,z)+yQ(x,y,z)+ zR(x,y,x)=0\) on \({S}^2.\) The algebraic surface \(f=0,\) \(f\in\mathbb{R}[x,y,z],\) defines an invariant algebraic curve \(C=\{f=0\}\cap { S}^2\) for \(X\) on the sphere if for some polynomial \(K,\) \(X(f)=Kf\) and the intersection of both surfaces, \(\{f=0\}\) and \({ S}^2,\) is transversal. If \(C\) is contained in some plane, then it is said that \(C\) is an invariant circle of \(X\) on the sphere and if this plane passes trough the origin then \(C\) is called an invariant great circle. Let \(X\) be a homogeneous polynomial vector field on the sphere of degree \(n\geq2\) and suppose that \(X\) has finitely many invariant circles. Some of the main results of the paper are: (i) \(X\) has at most \(15n-3-(1+(-1)^n)/2\) invariant circles and at most \(3n\) invariant great circles on \({ S}^2\). (ii) A single point can belong at most to \(6n-4\) different invariant circles and at most to \(n+1\) different invariant great circles. As the authors already comment the above upper bounds are far from being sharp. One of the main tools for proving these results is the use of the so-called extactic curve of \(X\) associated to a basis of \(\mathbb{R}[x,y,z]\). The paper also contains some examples of cubic homogeneous vector fields on \({ S}^2\) that present several distributions of invariant circles and great circles that are not present for \(n=2\).