A New Criterion for Controlling the Number of Limit Cycles of Some Generalized Liénard Equations

We consider a class of planar differential equations which include the Liénard differential equations. By applying the Bendixson–Dulac Criterion for ℓ-connected sets we reduce the study of the number of limit cycles for such equations to the condition that a certain function of just one variable does not change sign. As an application, this method is used to give a sharp upper bound for the number of limit cycles of some Liénard differential equations. In particular, we present a polynomial Liénard system with exactly three limit cycles.