Almost planar homoclinic loops in \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\) (Q1912510)

Homoclinic loops of smooth vector fields \({\mathcal X}_\varepsilon\) \((\varepsilon\) being a multi-parameter) in 3-dimensional spaces are studied. The paper is concerned with homoclinic loop bifurcations through a saddle point when two eigenvalues \(\lambda_1, \lambda_2\) of \({\mathcal X}_\varepsilon\) at \(\varepsilon = 0\) with smallest moduli (the principal eigenvalues) are real of opposite sign, i.e. when the resonance relation \(\lambda_1 + \lambda_2 = 0\) holds. In the paper such homoclinic loop bifurcations are called almost planar. Almost planar homoclinic loop bifurcations occur in two versions: ``non-twisted'' and ``twisted'' loops. Under some generic conditions (the assumption that there are no additional resonance relations except for \(\lambda_1 + \lambda_2 = 0\) and the assumption that the property that the homoclinic loop is non-twisted or twisted is structurally stable) the authors prove the existence of a 2-dimensional topological invariant annulus (non-necessarily unique) depending on \(\varepsilon\) which is a topological cylinder in the non-twisted case and a topological Möbius band in the twisted case. If the third eigenvalue is negative (positive) then the \(\omega(\alpha)\)-limit set of trajectories starting in a neighborhood of the loop is contained in the invariant annulus. The dynamics is then given by fixed points or periodic points of period 2 of a 1-dimensional map which admits a nice asymptotic expansion allowing to treat homoclinic loop bifurcations of high codimension in the non-twisted case. The bifurcation diagram of the low codimension cases is obtained. Several directions for further research are discussed.