On the number of limit cycles in small perturbations of a class of hyper-elliptic Hamiltonian systems with one nilpotent saddle (Q627691)

The authors study an unfolding of a Hamiltonian system with a nilpotent saddle and a center which can be brought to the form \[ \dot{x}=y,\;\;\dot{y}=x^3+x^4+\varepsilon(a+bx+cx^2+x^3)y. \] Here, \(0<\varepsilon\ll 1\) and \(a,b,c\) are parameters. It is first established that up to three limit cycles can be produced successively by Hopf bifurcations from the elliptic equilibrium. Next, to prove that the same number of limit cycles can bifurcate from the period annulus of the unperturbed system, the authors use a criterion by \textit{M. Grau, F. Mañosas} and \textit{J. Villadelprat} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 363, No.~1, 109--129 (2011; Zbl 1217.34052)] showing that the related four-dimensional space of Abelian integrals is a Chebyshev system. The proof of this fact requires extensive symbolic calculations performed using \texttt{Maple}.