Homoclinic orbits for eventually autonomous planar flows (Q1198201)

A two-dimensional system (1) \(y'=f(x,y)\), where \(f\) is piecewise \(C^ 1\) on \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\), \(f(x,y)=0\) and \(f\) does not depend on \(x\) for \(x<x_ 1\) and for \(x>x_ N\), \(x_ 1<x_ N\), is considered. The authors discuss the existence of solutions of (1) that are homoclinic to \(y=0\). Let \(f_ -(y)=f(x,y)\) for \(x<x_ 1\) and \(f_ +(y)=f(x,y)\) for \(x>x_ N\). One of the main assumptions is that the autonomous systems (2) \(y'=f_ -(y)\), \(y'=f_ +(y)\) have solutions that are homoclinic to the solution \(y=0\), which is a hyperbolic saddle point for each of the systems (2). Special attention is paid to the case of the second order equation.