Bifurcation phenomena near homoclinic systems: A two-parameter analysis (Q1073439)

The bifurcations of periodic orbits in a class of autonomous three- variable, nonlinear-differential-equation systems possessing a homoclinic orbit associated with a saddle focus with eigenvalues \((\rho \pm i\omega,\lambda)\), where \(| \rho /\lambda | <1\) (Sil'nikov's condition), are studied in a two-parameter space. The perturbed homoclinic systems undergo a countable set of tangent bifurcations followed by period-dubling bifurcations leading to periodic orbits which may be attractors if \(| \rho /\lambda | <\). The accumulation rate of the critical parameter values at the homoclinic system is exp(-2\(\pi\) \(| \rho /\omega |)\). A global mechanism for the onset of homoclinicity in strongly contractive flows is analyzed. Cusp bifurcations with bistability and hysteresis phenomena exist locally near the onset of homoclinicity. A countable set of these cusp bifurcations with scaling properties related to the eigenvalues \(\rho \pm i\omega\) of the stationary state are shown to occur in infinitely contractive flows. In the two-parameter space, the periodic orbit attractor domain exhibits a spiral structure globally, around the set of homoclinic systems, in which all the different periodic orbits are continuously connected.