The closed orbits of a class of cubic vector fields in \(\mathbb{R}^3\)
One of the main problems in qualitative theory of dynamical systems is the second part of Hilbert's 16th problem which asks for the maximum number and the relative positions of limit cycles of planar polynomial vector fields. There are many papers studying the planar polynomial vector fields but most of the models in engineering and biology are higher dimensional systems and there are few results for the number of limit cycles of three dimensional systems. The authors use the central projection transformation like a bridge between some $3$-dimensional vector fields and $2$-dimensional vector fields and they prove the existence of two closed orbits in each closed cone for a class of cubic vector fields in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Moreover, they prove that a cubic system has at least $10$ isolated closed orbits and another cubic system has at least $26$ isolated closed orbits. More precisely, the authors consider the quasi-homogenous vector field $$X(x)=xf(x)+Q(x),$$ where $x=(x_1,x_2,x_3)\in{\mathbb{R}^3}$, $Q(x)$ is a homogenous vector field of degree $m$, $f(x)=p_0+p_1(x)+p_2(x)+\cdots+p_n(x)$, $p_i(x)$ is a polynomial of degree $i$ $(i=0,1,\dots,n)$. They prove that the vector field $X(x)$ can have at most two closed isolated orbits in each closed cone for $m\leq 3$ and $n\leq 2$. Considering that $Q(x)$ is a homogenous vector field of degree $2$ the vector field $X(x)$ has at least ten closed invariant cones and there are exactly two closed orbits on the five invariant cones, therefore $X(x)$ has at least ten closed orbits. Moreover when $Q(x)$ is a homogenous vector field of degree $3$ the authors prove that a cubic system has at least $26$ closed invariant cones and there are at least $26$ isolated closed orbits in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with two types of distribution.
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7314973