2017, Schneider, Klaus R.

We present a new approach to establish the existence of a unique limit cycle for the van der Pol equation in case of large damping. It is connected with the bifurcation of a stable hyperbolic limit cycle from a closed curve composed of two heteroclinic orbits and of two segments of a straight line forming continua of equilibria. The proof is based on a linear time scaling (instead of the nonlinear Liénard transformation in previous approaches), on a Dulac-Cherkas function and the property of rotating vector fields.

2019, Schneider, Klaus R., Grin, Alexander

We present a new approach for the global bifurcation analysis of limit cycles for a generalized van der Pol system. It is based on the existence of a Dulac-Cherkas function and on applying two topologically equivalent systems: one of them is a rotated vector field, the other one is a singularly perturbed system.

2017, Grin, Alexander, Schneider, Klaus R.

We consider planar autonomous systems dx/dt =P(x,y,λ), dy/dt =Q(x,y,λ) depending on a scalar parameter λ. We present conditions on the functions P and Q which imply that there is a parameter value λ0 such that for &lambda > λ0 this system has a unique limit cycle which is hyperbolic and stable. Dulac-Cherkas functions, rotated vector fields and singularly perturbed systems play an important role in the proof.