No label defined (Q4514913)

The paper is a survey of methods used in numerical bifurcation analysis; the latter's aim is to compute continuum families of solutions to operator equations. The computations reveal some basic features of the solution behaviour such as stability, multiplicity and bifurcations. The basic numerical method is continuation. Algorithms are usually expressed and analyzed in terms of functional analysis, using often the implicit function theorem. Problems in which continuation is typically applied are boundary value problems, study of periodic solutions and of connecting orbits. Two of the techniques often and successfully used are discretization and collocation. The paper focuses mainly on four examples to illustrate how the basic methods work and to show their power and limitations. These are: 1. A singular perturbation problem, 2. A problem with ``bursting phenomena'' (Plant's model, when the system changes back and forth between a quiescent state and a rapidly oscillating one), 3. A problem with discontinuities of the derivative (Chua's circuit, in which Shilnikov's homoclinic orbits appear), and 4. A problem with homoclinic bifurcations (coupled Josephson junctions). For the entire collection see [Zbl 0927.00052].