Limit cycle enumeration in random vector fields

Abstract

We study the number and distribution of the limit cycles of a planar vector field whose component functions are random polynomials. We prove a lower bound on the average number of limit cycles when the random polynomials are sampled from the Kostlan-Shub-Smale ensemble. Investigating a problem introduced by Brudnyi [Ann. of Math. (2) 154 (2001), pp. 227–243] we also consider a special local setting of counting limit cycles near a randomly perturbed center focus, and when the perturbation has i.i.d. coefficients, we prove a limit law showing that the number of limit cycles situated within a disk of radius less than unity converges almost surely to the number of real zeros of a logarithmically-correlated random univariate power series. We also consider infinitesimal perturbations where we obtain precise asymptotics on the global average count of limit cycles for a family of models. The proofs of these results use novel combinations of techniques from dynamical systems and random analytic functions.