Periodic solutions of a singularly perturbed delay differential equation (Q1000771)

The singularly perturbed delay differential equation \[ \varepsilon \dot x(t)=-x(t)+f(x(t-1),\lambda), \eqno{(1)} \] serving as a model for physiological control systems and for the transmission of light through a ring cavity, exhibits slowly oscillating periodic solutions (SOPS) near the first period-doubling bifurcation point. In this article the authors consider the equation \[ \varepsilon \dot x(t)=-x(t)+\lambda x(t-1)(1-x(t-1)), \eqno{(2)} \] where the logistic nonlinearity is chosen useful at the study of periodic solutions to (1) in the neighborhood of the fixed point \(x_0, x_0=f(x_0,\lambda)\). Also any generic function \(f(x(t-1)\) can be approximated by a quadratic nonlinearity. Since the logistic map undergoes its first period-doubling bifurcation at \(\lambda=3\), it can be shown that it satisfies the conditions for the existence of SOPS to (2) in the neighborhood of \(\lambda=3\). The square-wave SOPS of (2) near \(\lambda=3\) exhibit a peculiar symmetry. If one measures the time intervals between three successive crossing of the square-wave solution with the average of the period-\(2\) fixed points of the map, one of them turns out to be \(\sim 1+2\varepsilon,\) while the other is \(O(1)\). Taking into account this observation the authors formulate and solve the corresponding transition layer equations. Employing a two-parameter perturbation expansion in \(\varepsilon\) and \(\sigma=\sqrt{\lambda-3}\) and using an approximate scaling between \(\varepsilon\) and \(\sigma\) the authors obtain analytic expressions for the square-wave SOPS in the neighborhood of the first period-doubling bifurcation point of the map. These expressions are in good agreement with numerical solutions for a range of values of \(\varepsilon\) and \(\lambda\). Such approach is used then to obtain analytic expressions for other periodic solutions of (2) which can be considered as odd harmonics of the SOPS.