A geometric criterion for equation dot{x}=sum^m_(i=0)a_i(t)x^i having at most m isolated periodic solutions

This paper is devoted to the investigation of generalized Abel equation $\dot{x}=S(x,t)=\sum^m_{i=0}a_i(t)x^i$, where $a_i\in\mathrm C^{\infty}([0,1])$. A solution $x(t)$ is called a {\em periodic solution} if $x(0)=x(1)$. In order to estimate the number of isolated periodic solutions of the equation, we propose a hypothesis (H) which is only concerned with $S(x,t)$ on $m$ straight lines: There exist $m$ real numbers $\lambda_1<\cdots<\lambda_m$ such that either $(-1)^i\cdot S(\lambda_i,t)\geq0$ for $i=1,\cdots,m$, or $(-1)^i\cdot S(\lambda_i,t)\leq0$ for $i=1,\cdots,m$. By means of Lagrange interpolation formula, we proves that the equation has at most $m$ isolated periodic solutions (counted with multiplicities) if hypothesis (H) holds, and the upper bound is sharp. Furthermore, this conclusion is also obtained under some weaker geometric hypotheses. Applying our main result for the trigonometrical generalized Abel equation with coefficients of degree one, we give a criterion to obtain the upper bound for the number of isolated periodic solutions. This criterion is "almost equivalent" to hypothesis (H) and can be much more effectively checked.