Asymptotic stability of forced oscillations emanating from a limit cycle

Classical conditions for asymptotic stability of periodic solutions bifurcating from a limit cycle rely on the derivative of the corresponding bifurcation function F at the bifurcation point t. We show that for analytic systems this result is the one of topological nature, namely the topological index ind(t,F) is conclusive versus the sign of the derivative (d/dt)F(t). This allows to detect asymptotic stability also in the case when (d/dt)F(t)=0.