Uniqueness of limit cycles for polynomial first-order differential equations

Abstract: We study the uniqueness of limit cycles (periodic solutions that are isolated in the set of periodic solutions) in the scalar ODE in terms of , , . Our main result characterizes, under some additional hypotheses, the exponents , , , such that for any choice of the equation has at most one limit cycle. The obtained results have direct application to rigid planar vector fields, thus, planar systems of the form , , where . Concretely, when the set has at least three elements (or exactly one) and another technical condition is satisfied, we characterize the exponents , such that the origin of the rigid system is a center for any choice of and also when there are no limit cycles surrounding the origin for any choice of . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]