Heteroclinic orbits for retarded functional differential equations (Q1087709)

Suppose \(\Gamma\) is a heteroclinic orbit of a \(C^ k\) functional differential equation \(\dot x(t)=f(x_ t)\) with \(\alpha\)-limit set \(\alpha(\Gamma)\) and \(\omega\)-limit set \(\omega(\Gamma)\) being either hyperbolic equilibrium points or periodic orbits. The authors give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an \(\tilde f\) close to f in \(C^ k\) with the property that \(\dot x(t)=\tilde f(x_ t)\) has a heteroclinic orbit \({\tilde \Gamma}\) close to \(\Gamma\). The orbits \({\tilde \Gamma}\) are obtained from the zeros of a finite number of bifurcation functions \(G(\beta,\tilde f)\in R^{d^*}\), \(\beta \in R^{d+1}\). Transversality of \(\Gamma\) is characterized by the nondegeneracy of the derivative \(D_{\beta}G\). One of the main results of the paper is the following. If \(\Gamma \subset W^{\mu}(\gamma_ 1)\cap W^ s(\gamma_ 2),\) \(I=\max \{0,-ind \Gamma\}\) then, for u small, there are \(C^ k\) submanifolds \(M(I)\subset \chi^ k\) of codimension I such that \(f+g(\cdot,u)\in M(I)\) if and only if \(\dot x(t)=f(x_ t)+g(x_ t,u)\) has an orbit \(\Gamma^{\mu}\subset W^{\mu}(\gamma_ s^{\mu})\cap W^ s(\gamma_ 2^{\mu})\) close to \(\Gamma\) and in general position. Furthermore, \(f\in C\ell M(I)\); that is, if \(\Gamma\) is not in general position, then there is a perturbation \(\tilde g\) of f such that \(f+\tilde g\in M(I)\).