A higher-order period function and its application

This paper derives explicit formulas of the qth period bifurcation function for any perturbed isochronous system with a center, which improve and generalize the corresponding results in the literature. Based on these formulas to the perturbed quadratic and quintic rigidly isochronous centers, we prove that under any small homogeneous perturbations, for ε in any order, at most one critical period bifurcates from the periodic orbits of the unperturbed quadratic system. For ε in order of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, at most three critical periods bifurcate from the periodic orbits of the unperturbed quintic system. Moreover, in each case, the upper bound is sharp. Finally, a family of perturbed quintic rigidly isochronous centers is shown, which has three, for ε in any order, as the exact upper bound of the number of critical periods.