Spectral analysis of stochastic phase lockings and stochastic bifurcations in the sinusoidally forced van der Pol oscillator with additive noise (Q1284842)

The authors study the van der Pol relaxation oscillator in the presence of sinusoidal forcing and noise. The case when there is no noise is usually studied in terms of the discrete dynamical system generated by the return map. The latter maps the initial phase of the sinusoidal input to its phase when the trajectory returns to the same point. The method used by the authors in the stochastic situation, when the noise is present, is to consider, instead of the return map, the operator transforming corresponding probability densities. A numerical investigation of its eigenvalues and eigenfunctions leads to information on stochastic bifurcations.