On the number of limit cycles in piecewise planar quadratic differential systems

Abstract: We consider piecewise quadratic perturbations of centers of piecewise quadratic systems in two zones determined by a straight line through the origin. By means of expansions of the displacement map, we are able to find isolated zeros of it, without dealing with the unsurprising difficult integrals inherent in the usual averaging approach. We apply our technique to non-smooth perturbations of the four families of isochronous centers of the Loud family, $S_1$, $S_2$, $S_3$, and $S_4$, as well as to non-smooth perturbations of non-smooth centers given by putting different $S_i$'s in each zone. To show the coverage of our approach, we apply its first order, which recovers the averaging method of the first order, in perturbations of the already mentioned centers considering all the straight lines through the origin. Then we apply its second order to perturbations of the above centers for a specific oblique straight line. Here in order to argue we introduce certain blow-ups in the perturbative parameters. As a consequence of our study, we obtain examples of piecewise quadratic systems with at least $12$ limit cycles. By analyzing two previous works of the literature claiming much more limit cycles we found some mistakes in the calculations. Therefore, the best lower bound for the number of limit cycles of a piecewise quadratic system is up to now the $12$ limit cycles found in the present paper.