Heteroclinic loop bifurcations by perturbing a class of \(\mathrm{Z}_2\)-equivariant quadratic switching Hamiltonian systems with nilpotent singular points (Q6187276)

In this paper, the authors investigate the problem of heteroclinic loop bifurcations by perturbing a class of planar \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-equivariant quadratic switching Hamiltonian systems with nilpotent singular points defined in two zones separated by the \(y\)-axis. The unperturbed system is symmetric with respect to the \(x\)-axis. They first obtain conditions for the existence of heteroclinc or homoclinic loops and construct their corresponding phase portraits. Then by using the first-order Melnikov method, they study the number of limit cycles bifurcated from the heteroclinc loop when the system is perturbed by piecewise polynomial systems of degree \(n\geq 1\). They prove that at least \(n+\left[n/2\right]\) limit cycles can bifurcate from the generalized heteroclinic loop.