This book offers the first systematic account of canard cycles, an intriguing phenomenon in the study of ordinary differential equations. The canard cycles are treated in the general context of slow-fast families of two-dimensional vector fields. The central question of controlling the limit cycles is addressed in detail and strong results are presented with complete proofs. In particular, the book provides a detailed study of the structure of the transitions near the critical set of non-isolated singularities. This leads to precise results on the limit cycles and their bifurcations, including the so-called canard phenomenon and canard explosion. The book also provides a solid basis for the use of asymptotic techniques. It gives a clear understanding of notions like inner and outer solutions, describing their relation and precise structure. The first part of the book provides a thorough introduction to slow-fast systems, suitable for graduate students. The second and third parts will be of interest to both pure mathematicians working on theoretical questions such as Hilbert's 16th problem, as well as to a wide range of applied mathematicians looking for a detailed understanding of two-scale models found in electrical circuits, population dynamics, ecological models, cellular (FitzHugh-Nagumo) models, epidemiological models, chemical reactions, mechanical oscillators with friction, climate models, and many other models with tipping points.

This book deals with systems of polynomial autonomous ordinary differential equations in two real variables. The emphasis is mainly qualitative, although attention is also given to more algebraic aspects as a thorough study of the center/focus problem and recent results on integrability. In the last two chapters the performant software tool P4 is introduced. From the start, differential systems are represented by vector fields enabling, in full strength, a dynamical systems approach. All essential notions, including invariant manifolds, normal forms, desingularization of singularities, index theory and limit cycles, are introduced and the main results are proved for smooth systems with the necessary specifications for analytic and polynomial systems.

The book reports on recent work by the authors on the bifurcation structure of singular points of planar vector fields whose linear parts are nilpotent. The bifurcation diagrams of the most important codimension-three cases are studied in detail. The results presented reach the limits of what is currently known on the bifurcation theory of planar vector fields. While the treatment is geometric, special analytical tools using abelian integrals are needed, and are explicitly developed. The rescaling and normalization methods are improved for application here. The reader is assumed to be familiar with the elements of Bifurcation and Dynamical Systems Theory. The book is addressed to researchers and graduate students working in Ordinary Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems, as well as anyone modelling complex multiparametric phenomena.

This book offers the first systematic account of canard cycles, an intriguing phenomenon in the study of ordinary differential equations. The canard cycles are treated in the general context of slow-fast families of two-dimensional vector fields. The central question of controlling the limit cycles is addressed in detail and strong results are presented with complete proofs. In particular, the book provides a detailed study of the structure of the transitions near the critical set of non-isolated singularities. This leads to precise results on the limit cycles and their bifurcations, including the so-called canard phenomenon and canard explosion. The book also provides a solid basis for the use of asymptotic techniques. It gives a clear understanding of notions like inner and outer solutions, describing their relation and precise structure. The first part of the book provides a thorough introduction to slow-fast systems, suitable for graduate students. The second and third parts will be of interest to both pure mathematicians working on theoretical questions such as Hilbert's 16th problem, as well as to a wide range of applied mathematicians looking for a detailed understanding of two-scale models found in electrical circuits, population dynamics, ecological models, cellular (FitzHugh-Nagumo) models, epidemiological models, chemical reactions, mechanical oscillators with friction, climate models, and many other models with tipping points.