Piecewise smooth systems near a co-dimension 2 discontinuity manifold: can one say what should happen? (Q317106)

In this paper the authors study piecewise smooth vector fields (PWS) defined in four zones, i.e., the system is given by \[ \dot{x}=f(x), f(x)=f_i(x), i=1,2,3,4. \] Moreover, even if the geral theory concerning the above mentioned PWS can be formulate in \(\mathbb R^n\), the paper deals with PWS defined in \(\mathbb R^3\) and \(\mathbb R^4\). There are two transversal co-dimension one switching manifolds \(\Sigma_1\) and \(\Sigma_2\) separating the four vector fields. At the intersection of these manifolds it appears a co-dimension two manifold, called \(\Sigma\). Since the dynamics on \(\Sigma_1\) and \(\Sigma_2\) is known (using, for example, the Filippov's convention), the main purpose of the paper is to understand which behavior one should expect of a solution near \(\Sigma\). The authors use interesting methods in order to understand this dynamic, including regularization and considering the Euler iterates with random steps. As a conclusion, it is shown that: when \(\Sigma\) is attractive then a solution trajectory remains near \(\Sigma\); when \(\Sigma\) loses attractivity (in the simpler way) then a typical trajectory leaves any neighborhood of \(\Sigma\); and there is no trivial way to regularize the PWS in order to obtain a smooth vector field presenting the two previous behavior. The paper also presents several examples and numerical simulations.