Period-doubling in two-parameter families (Q2366498)

Consider the Hénon family \(H_{\mu,b}(x,y)=(1-\mu x^ 2+y,bx)\) of mappings on the plane with constant Jacobian \(-b\); for \(b\) nonzero \(H_{\mu,b}\) is a diffeomorphism on \(\mathbb{R}^ 2\) which is dissipative for \(| b|<1\), area-preserving for \(| b |=1\), and area- expanding for \(| b |>1\). For \(| b | \neq 1\) the family \(\mu \mapsto H_{\mu,b}\) exhibits a period-doubling cascade starting at \(\mu={3 \over 4} (1-b)^ 2\) and ending at \(\mu=\mu_ \infty(b)\); similarly, for \(| b |=1\) one has a cascade of bifurcations of elliptic fixed points. The authors give theoretical and numerical arguments supporting the conjecture that the function \(b\mapsto\mu_ \infty(b)\) is smooth for \(| b | \neq 1\), but only of class \(C^ 3\) and not \(C^ 4\) at \(b=1\) and \(b=-1\). The same result should be true for generic two- parameter constant-Jacobian families. As a step towards proving similar results for general two-parameter families (not necessarily with constant Jacobian) the authors consider in the second part of the paper the doubling operator defined on the space of all (analytic) mappings, and study the spectrum of its linearisation at its area-preserving fixed point. It is shown that the spectrum of the unrestricted linearisation is completely determined by the spectrum of its restriction to area- preserving maps.