Pitchfork and Hopf bifurcations of traveling pulses generated by coexisting front and back waves (Q1601154)

The author studies a heteroclinic bifurcation associated with coexisting back and front solutions in a reaction-diffusion system. Under suitable assumptions, coexisting back and front are known to give rise to standing pulses for nearby parameter values. Coexistence itself is a codimension-one phenomenon, where the front speed crosses zero for a particular parameter value. Adding an additional number, this crossing can be non-transverse, adding an additional neutral mode in the bifurcation diagram. The associated codimension-three heteroclinic bifurcation and the relevant eigenvalue problem are studied using Poincaré maps and Evans function analysis. It is shown that pitchfork and Hopf bifurcations can occur under suitable assumptions.