Onset of chaos in differential delay equations (Q1102711)

The authors study the onset of chaos in the differential delay equation \[ \dot x(t)=-x(t)+bx(t-2)/(1+x^{10}(t-2)), \] where \(b>0\) is a parameter. A numerical technique is developed which allows to study the global behaviour of the flow defined by the equation. Some typical results are: for \(b\approx 1.34\) a Hopf bifurcation from the steady states \(x_ 1=(b-1)^{0.1}\) and \(x_ 2=-x_ 1\) to stable T-periodic (T\(\approx 5.5)\) orbits takes place. Here the initial data that generates the T-periodic orbit is approximately found by the homotopy continuation method. For \(b\approx 1.56\) a period doubling bifurcation to stable 2T- periodic orbits occurs. For \(b\approx 1.72\) the 2T-periodic orbits become unstable and 4T-periodic orbits appear. For 1.725\(\leq b\leq 1.74\) several period doubling bifurcations take place and orbits of periods 8T, 16T and 32T are observed. Further on, there is a \(b_ 0\) between 1.74 and 1.77 such that for \(b=b_ 0\) there is a homoclinic tangency between the stable and unstable manifolds of the T-periodic orbit. For \(b=1.77\) there is a transverse homoclinic orbit. For \(b<1.8\) the unstable manifold of the Poincaré map is 1-dimensional. For \(b\approx 1.8\) a saddle-node bifurcation from the T-periodic orbit takes place and the unstable manifold becomes 2-dimensional. The creation of homoclinic orbits leads to infinitely many periodic orbits and thus to the onset of chaos.