Saddle-node bifurcation and homoclinic persistence in AFMs with periodic forcing (Q2298939)

Summary: We study the dynamics of an atomic force microscope (AFM) model, under the Lennard-Jones force with nonlinear damping and harmonic forcing. We establish the bifurcation diagrams for equilibria in a conservative system. Particularly, we present conditions that guarantee the local existence of saddle-node bifurcations. By using the Melnikov method, the region in the space parameters where the homoclinic orbits persist is determined in a nonconservative system.