Saddle-node bifurcation of invariant cones in 3D piecewise linear systems (Q2428014)

The authors consider the occurence of a saddle-node bifurcation of invariant cones in three-dimensional continuous homogeneous piecewise linear systems. It is shown that invariant cones for this class of systems correspond to periodic orbits of a continuous piecewise cubic system on the unit sphere. Moreover, two Melnikov fuctions are defined. The zeros of these functions provide the invariant cones that persist under perturbations. The properties of the Melnikov functions allow the authors to give some results about the existence of invariant cones and saddle-node bifurcations.