Hopf bifurcations in time-delay systems with band-limited feedback (Q2572286)

Motivated by radio-frequency devices with time-delayed filtered feedback, this work studies two-dimensional delay differential equations of the form \[ \dot x(t)=-x(t)+y(t)+\gamma f(x(t-\tau)), \quad\dot y(t)=-r x(t), \] where \(0<r\leq1/4\) and \(f(0)=0\). The authors first prove that for small \(\gamma\) the origin is globally stable. For larger \(\gamma\), local stability is generically lost through a Hopf bifurcation. The location, frequency and criticality of the Hopf bifurcation are expressed directly in terms of Taylor coefficients of the nonlinearity \(f\) and the parameters. The presence of double-Hopf bifurcations is also shown, indicating possible quasi-periodic and chaotic dynamics in these systems. The general formulas are then applied to specific nonlinearities.