Bifurcations from an attracting heteroclinic cycle under periodic forcing (Q2181268)

The authors consider a family of nonautonomous periodic forcing of an autonomous system of ordinary differential equations given by \[ \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} &\dot x=x(1-r^2) -\alpha x z +\beta xz^2+\gamma (1-x)\sin(2\omega t),\\ &\dot y=y(1-r^2)+\alpha y z+\beta yz^2 ,\\ &\dot z=z(1-r^2)-\alpha(y^2-x^2)-\beta z(x^2+y^2), \end{array} \right. \] where \(r^2=x^2+y^2+z^2\), \(\beta <0 <\alpha\), \(|\beta|<\alpha\) \(\Rightarrow\) \(\beta^2 < 8\alpha^2\) and \(\gamma >0\). The dynamics associated to the unperturbed system (\(\gamma=0\)) is systematically studied. It gives rise to a heteroclinic network (connected union of heteroclinic cycles) \(\Sigma_0\) on the unit sphere. Results by \textit{P. E. Kloeden} and \textit{M. Rasmussen} [Nonautonomous dynamical systems. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2011; Zbl 1244.37001)] can be applied to show that \(\Sigma_0\) is a global attractor of the autonomous flow, and the above nonautonomous system induces a process which has a pullback attractor \(\Sigma_\gamma\). The present paper explore the resulting dynamics. In the weakly attracting case, i.e., \(\delta=(\alpha-\beta)^2/(\alpha+\beta)^2\gtrsim 1\), the authors derive the return map near the heteroclinic cycle for small amplitude of the perturbing term, and they reduce the analysis of the nonautonomous system to that of a two-dimensional map on a cylinder. In particular, the bifurcation and stability of periodic solutions are studied when \(\gamma\) and an introduced parameter \(k_1\) vary. Finally, they compare their results to those obtained by others authors for similar systems.