Zero-Hopf periodic orbit of a quadratic system of differential equations obtained from a third-order differential equation (Q2415426)

The system of differential equations \(x'=y, y'=z, z'= -(a_1x+a_0)z-(b_1x+b_0)y-x^2\) is investigated. Here \(a_0, a_1, b_0, b_1\) are real parameters, and the system is equivalent to the third-order differential equation \(x''' +(a_1x+a_0)x'' +(b_1x+b_0)x' +x^2=0\). By replacing \(b_0\) with \((\varepsilon^2a^2+\beta^2)/4\) and under suitable assumptions, it is proved that the equation has a periodic solution \(x(t, \varepsilon)\) such that \(x(0, \varepsilon) = A\varepsilon +O(\varepsilon^2)\), where \(A\) has an explicit expression in terms of the coefficients, and \(x(t, \varepsilon)\) bifurcates from a zero-Hopf equilibrium point when \(\varepsilon =0\). Moreover, it is shown that \(x(t, \varepsilon)\) is locally stable if \(a_1\beta^2-8>0\) and \(a<0\), unstable if \(a_1\beta^2-8>0\) and \(a>0\), and has both stable and unstable manifolds if \(a_1\beta^2-8<0\). This zero-Hopf bifurcation result can be viewed as a continuation of the result for nonzero-Hopf bifurcation available in the literature.