HILBERT'S 16TH PROBLEM AND BIFURCATIONS OF PLANAR POLYNOMIAL VECTOR FIELDS

The original Hilbert's 16th problem can be split into four parts consisting of Problems A–D. In this paper, the progress of study on Hilbert's 16th problem is presented, and the relationship between Hilbert's 16th problem and bifurcations of planar vector fields is discussed. The material is presented in eight sections.

Section 1: Introduction: what is Hilbert's 16th problem?

Section 2: The first part of Hilbert's 16th problem.

Section 3: The second part of Hilbert's 16th problem: introduction.

Section 4: Focal values, saddle values and finite cyclicity in a fine focus, closed orbit and homoclinic loop.

Section 5: Finiteness problem.

Section 6: The weakened Hilbert's 16th problem.

Section 7: Global and local bifurcations of Z_q–equivariant vector fields.

Section 8: The rate of growth of Hilbert number H(n) with n.