ASYMPTOTIC EXPANSIONS OF MELNIKOV FUNCTIONS AND LIMIT CYCLE BIFURCATIONS

Abstract

In the study of the perturbation of Hamiltonian systems, the first order Melnikov functions play an important role. By finding its zeros, we can find limit cycles. By analyzing its analytical property, we can find its zeros. The main purpose of this article is to summarize some methods to find its zeros near a Hamiltonian value corresponding to an elementary center, nilpotent center or a homoclinic or heteroclinic loop with hyperbolic saddles or nilpotent critical points through the asymptotic expansions of the Melnikov function at these values. We present a series of results on the limit cycle bifurcation by using the first coefficients of the asymptotic expansions.