Isolas of 2-pulse solutions in homoclinic snaking scenarios (Q2430745)

Consider a four-dimensional system of differential equations \[ u_x=f(u,\mu), \] where \(f\) is a smooth vector field and \(\mu\) is a real parameter. The main assumptions are as follows: (i) the system is reversible and Hamiltonian; (ii) the system has a saddle-focus rest point \(u=0\) and a family of closed orbits \(\gamma(x,\mu)\) connected with \(u=0\) by heteroclinic orbits. The authors study the bifurcation diagram corresponding to homoclinic orbits that spend prescribed times near the rest point \(u=0\) and the closed orbits \(\gamma\). The terms ``isolas'' and ``snaking'' in the title refer to the geometry of the bifurcation diagram. These results explain the existence of stationary 1D patterns of symmetric 2-pulses in bistable systems since such patterns are related to homoclinic orbits in special systems of ordinary differential equations.