Symmetric periodic solutions of parabolic problems with discontinuous hysteresis (Q657756)

This paper studies the behavior of a heat equation in a bounded domain, when the heat flux through the domain's boundary is regulated according to temperature measurements in the domain, via a hysteresis operator. Thus, two thresholds \(\alpha,\beta\) are given, and heating is turned `on' when the temperature measurement in the domain crosses \(\alpha\) from above, and turned `off' when the temperature measurement crosses \(\beta\) from below. The main question of interest is the existence, multiplicity and stability of periodic solutions. In [the first author, Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 29, No. 3, 1041--1083 (2011; Zbl 1217.35013)] it was proved that, when the difference \(\beta-\alpha\) is sufficiently large, there exists a unique periodic solution. In this paper it is shown that when \(\beta-\alpha\) is small, unstable periodic solutions may appear. A systematic procedure for finding all periodic solutions with exactly two switchings is developed, based on a finite-dimensional reduction of the problem, and the bifurcation of periodic solutions is investigated in detail.