On the bifurcations of equilibria corresponding to double eigenvalues (Q4948068)

The authors consider some bifurcation cases of equilibrium points generated by \(N\)-dimensional systems of ordinary differential equations, \(N\geq 4\), having a finite symmetry group. The functions defining these equations are sufficiently smooth with respect to the phase variables, and to a parameter. The most part of the paper concerns the situation for which an equilibrium point has two identical pairs of complex eigenvalues which turn into a double pair of purely imaginary values for the bifurcation value of the parameter. The authors describe two qualitatively different cases of bifurcation. In the first case they prove that an invariant two-dimensional torus, as well as two limit cycles may be generated from the equilibrium point, when it changes its stability. So, when the parameter value is sufficiently close to the bifurcation value, any phase trajectory belonging to a domain \(U^*\), independent of the parameter, tends toward either an equilibrium point, or one of the limit cycles, or the torus, or leaves \(U^*\) in a finite time. The trajectories on the torus are not dense. The second case of bifurcation is related to the birth of a three-dimensional invariant surface from the equilibrium point. This surface is diffeomorphic to the sphere. An appendix deals with symmetric two-dimensional ordinary differential equations, in a bifurcation situation such that an equilibrium point has a double eigenvalue equal to zero. Then from the equilibrium point the bifurcation generates either a closed invariant curve containing a given number of equilibria, or an invariant curve where the whole set of points are equilibria.