At Most Five Limit Cycles in a Class of Discontinuous Piecewise Linear Systems with Three Zones

Abstract

In this paper, we study the maximum number of limit cycles where planar discontinuous piecewise differential systems can exist formed by three regions separated by a nonregular line. We show that such discontinuous piecewise linear systems can have at most five limit cycles, two of which are of the four intersection points type, the third one is of the two intersection points type and the other two are of three intersection points type. In a setting, we have solved the extended 16th Hilbert problem for these discontinuous piecewise linear differential systems.