Motivated by the definition of rigid centres for planar differential systems, we introduce the study of rigid centres on the center manifolds of differential systems on $\mathbb {R}^{3}$ . On the plane, these centres have been extensively studied and several interesting results have been obtained. We present results that characterize the rigid systems on $\mathbb {R}^{3}$ and solve the centre-focus problem for several families of rigid systems.

We work with polynomial three-dimensional rigid differential systems. Using the Lyapunov constants, we obtain lower bounds for the cyclicity of the known rigid centers on their center manifolds. Moreover, we obtain an example of a quadratic rigid center from which is possible to bifurcate 13 limit cycles, which is a new lower bound for three-dimensional quadratic systems.

We work with polynomial three-dimensional rigid differential systems. Using the Lyapunov constants, we obtain lower bounds for the cyclicity of the known rigid centres on their centre manifolds. Moreover, we obtain an example of a quadratic rigid centre from which is possible to bifurcate 13 limit cycles, which is a new lower bound for three-dimensional quadratic systems.

Poincaré in 1891 asked about the necessary and sufficient conditions in order to characterize when a polynomial differential system in the plane has a rational first integral. Here we solve this question for the class of Liénard differential equations ẍ + f (x)ẋ + x = 0, being f (x) a polynomial of arbitrary degree. As far as we know it is the first time that all rational first integrals of a relevant class of polynomial differential equations of arbitrary degree has been classified.