On stability loss delay for dynamical bifurcations (Q1045970)

This paper surveys the phenomenon of delayed loss of stability. In the classical bifurcation theory, the behavior of systems depending on a parameter is considered for values of this parameter close to some critical, bifurcational one. This is a static theory in the sense that the value of the parameter does not depend on time. In the theory of dynamical bifurcations, a parameter is changing slowly in time and passes through a value that would be bifurcational in classical static theory. Some phenomena arising here are drastically different from predictions that could be derived from the static approach. Delayed loss of stability is one such phenomenon. Let at some value of a parameter an equilibrium or a limit cycle lose its asymptotic linear stability but let it remain nondegenerate. It turns out that in analytic dynamical systems the phenomenon of delayed loss of stability occurs: phase points remain close to the unstable equilibrium (cycle) for some time after the bifurcation and then rapidly leave the small neighbourhood of the equilibrium; during this time the parameter changes by a quantity of order 1. Such delay is not in general found in non-analytic (even infinitely smooth) systems. Several exampes, including a numerical one, are given.