THE HILBERT NUMBER OF A CLASS OF DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

Abstract

The notion of Hilbert number from polynomial differential systems in the plane of degree $n$ can be extended to the differential equations of the form \[\dfrac{dr}{d\theta}=\dfrac{a(\theta)}{\displaystyle \sum_{j=0}^{n}a_{j}(\theta)r^{j}} \eqno(*)\] defined in the region of the cylinder $(\tt,r)\in \Ss^1\times \R$ where the denominator of $(*)$ does not vanish. Here $a, a_0, a_1, \ldots, a_n$ are analytic $2\pi$--periodic functions, and the Hilbert number $\HHH(n)$ is the supremum of the number of limit cycles that any differential equation $(*)$ on the cylinder of degree $n$ in the variable $r$ can have. We prove that $\HHH(n)= \infty$ for all $n\ge 1$.