A pitchfork bifurcation of an $(m-1)$-dimensional invariant submanifold of a dynamical system in $\mathbb{R}^m$ is defined analogous to that in $\mathbb{R}$. Sufficient conditions for such a bifurcation to occur are stated and existence of the bifurcated manifolds is proved under the stated hypotheses. For discrete dynamical systems, the existence of locally attracting manifolds $M_+$ and $M_-$, after the bifurcation has taken place is proved by constructing a diffeomorphism of the unstable manifold $M$. For continuous dynamical systems, the theorem is proved by transforming it to the discrete case. Techniques used for proving the theorem involve differential topology and analysis. The theorem is illustrated by means of a canonical example.
In this paper, we present a criterion for pitchfork bifurcation of smooth vector fields based on a topological argument. Our result expands Rajapakse and Smale's result \cite{RS2} significantly. Based on our criterion, we present a class of families of non-symmetric vector fields undergoing a pitchfork bifurcation.
This paper concerns the effects of additive non-Gaussian Lévy noises on the pitchfork bifurcation. We consider two types of noises, $α$-stable process and the truncated process. Under both $α$-stable process and the truncated process, the classical pitchfork bifurcation model exists a unique invariant measure. The Lyapunov exponent associated with the invariant measure is always negative for the system under the truncated case. While the stochastic pitchfork bifurcation still occurs. In both cases, the attractivity uniformity, the finite-time Lyapunov exponent, and the dichotomy spectrum behav…
We develop the dichotomy spectrum for random dynamical system and demonstrate its use in the characterization of pitchfork bifurcations for random dynamical systems with additive noise. Crauel and Flandoli had shown earlier that adding noise to a system with a deterministic pitchfork bifurcation yields a unique attracting random fixed point with negative Lyapunov exponent throughout, thus "destroying" this bifurcation. Indeed, we show that in this example the dynamics before and after the underlying deterministic bifurcation point are topologically equivalent. However, in apparent paradox, we …
In this paper, we revisit the folded node and the bifurcations of secondary canards at resonances $μ\in \mathbb N$. In particular, we prove for the first time that pitchfork bifurcations occur at all even values of $μ$. Our approach relies on a time-reversible version of the Melnikov approach in \cite{wechselberger2002a}, used in \cite{wechselberger_existence_2005} to prove the transcritical bifurcations for all odd values of $μ$. It is known that the secondary canards produced by the transcritical and the pitchfork bifurcations only reach the Fenichel slow manifolds on one side of each transc…
We study stochastic bifurcation for a system under multiplicative stable Levy noise (an important class of non-Gaussian noise), by examining the qualitative changes of equilibrium states in its most probable phase portraits. We have found some peculiar bifurcation phenomena in contrast to the deterministic counterpart: (i) When the non-Gaussianity parameter in Levy noise varies, there is either one, two or none backward pitchfork type bifurcations; (ii) When a parameter in the vector field varies, there are two or three forward pitchfork bifurcations; (iii) The non-Gaussian Levy noise clearly …
In this work we analyze the bifurcation of dividing surfaces that occurs as a result of a pitchfork bifurcation of periodic orbits in a two degrees of freedom Hamiltonian System. The potential energy surface of the system that we consider has four critical points: two minima, a high energy saddle and a lower energy saddle separating two wells (minima). In this paper we study the structure, the range, and the minimum and maximum extent of the periodic orbit dividing surfaces of the family of periodic orbits of the lower saddle as a function of the total energy.
The Lorenz-96 model is widely used as a test model for various applications, such as data assimilation methods. This symmetric model has the forcing $F\in\mathbb{R}$ and the dimension $n\in\mathbb{N}$ as parameters and is $\mathbb{Z}_n$ equivariant. In this paper, we unravel its dynamics for $F<0$ using equivariant bifurcation theory. Symmetry gives rise to invariant subspaces, that play an important role in this model. We exploit them in order to generalise results from a low dimension to all multiples of that dimension. We discuss symmetry for periodic orbits as well. Our analysis leads to p…
The slow drift (with speed $\eps$) of a parameter through a pitchfork bifurcation point, known as the dynamic pitchfork bifurcation, is characterized by a significant delay of the transition from the unstable to the stable state. We describe the effect of an additive noise, of intensity $σ$, by giving precise estimates on the behaviour of the individual paths. We show that until time $\sqrt\eps$ after the bifurcation, the paths are concentrated in a region of size $σ/\eps^{1/4}$ around the bifurcating equilibrium. With high probability, they leave a neighbourhood of this equilibrium during a t…
Many organic chemical reactions are governed by potential energy surfaces that have a region with the topographical features of a caldera. If the caldera has a symmetry then trajectories transiting the caldera region are observed to exhibit a phenomenon that is referred to as dynamical matching. Dynamical matching is a constraint that restricts the way in which a trajectory can exit the caldera based solely on how it enters the caldera. In this paper we show that bifurcations of the critical points of the caldera potential energy surface can destroy dynamical matching even when the symmetry of…
We study the effect of changes in the parameters of a two-dimensional potential energy surface on the phase space structures relevant for chemical reaction dynamics. The changes in the potential energy are representative of chemical reactions such as isomerization between two structural conformations or dissociation of a molecule with an intermediate. We present a two degrees of freedom quartic Hamiltonian that shows pitchfork bifurcation when the parameters are varied and we derive the bifurcation criteria relating the parameters. Next, we describe the phase space structures - unstable period…
This work studies front formation in the Allen-Cahn equation with a parameter heterogeneity which slowly varies in space. In particular, we consider a heterogeneity which mediates the local stability of the zero state and subsequent pitchfork bifurcation to a non-trivial state. For slowly-varying ramps which are either rigidly propagating in time or stationary, we rigorously establish existence and stability of positive, monotone fronts and give leading order expansions for their interface location. For non-zero ramp speeds, and sufficiently small ramp slopes, the front location is determined …
Bifurcation equations, non-degeneracy and transversality conditions are obtained for the fold, transcritical, pitchfork and flip bifurcations for periodic points of one dimensional implicitly defined discrete dynamical systems. The backward Euler method and the trapezoid method for numeric solutions of ordinary differential equations fall in the category of implicit dynamical systems. Examples of bifurcations are given for some implicit dynamical systems including bifurcations for the backward Euler method when the step size is changed.
We strengthen the standard bifurcation theorems for saddle-node, transcritical, pitchfork, and period-doubling bifurcations of maps. Our new formulation involves adding one or two extra terms to the standard truncated normal forms with coefficients determined by algebraic equations. These extended normal forms are differentiably conjugate to the original maps on basins of attraction and repulsion of fixed points or periodic orbits. This reflects common assumptions about the additional information in normal forms despite standard bifurcation theorems being formulated only in terms of topologica…
We study a non-linear dynamical system on networks inspired by the pitchfork bifurcation normal form. The system has several interesting interpretations: as an interconnection of several pitchfork systems, a gradient dynamical system and the dominating behaviour of a general class of non-linear dynamical systems. The equilibrium behaviour of the system exhibits a global bifurcation with respect to the system parameter, with a transition from a single constant stationary state to a large range of possible stationary states. Our main result classifies the stability of (a subset of) these station…
We numerically study solitary waves in the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. We detect pitchfork bifurcations of the fundamental solitary wave and compute eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the corresponding eigenvalue problems to determine the spectral stability of solitary waves born at the pitchfork bifurcations. Our numerical results demonstrate the theoretical ones which the authors obtained recently. We also compute generalized eigenfunctions associated with the zero eigenvalue for the bifurcated solitary wave exhibiting a saddle-node bifurcation, and show that it does not change i…
Decision making is a fundamental capability of autonomous systems. As decision making is a process which happens over time, it can be well modeled by dynamical systems. Often, decisions are made on the basis of perceived values of the underlying options and the desired outcome is to select the option with the highest value. This can be encoded as a bifurcation which produces a stable equilibrium corresponding to the high-value option. When some options have identical values, it is natural to design the decision-making model to be indifferent among the equally-valued options, leading to symmetr…
The interplay between bifurcations and random switching processes of vector fields is studied. More precisely, we provide a classification of piecewise deterministic Markov processes arising from stochastic switching dynamics near fold, Hopf, transcritical and pitchfork bifurcations. We prove the existence of invariant measures for different switching rates. We also study, when the invariant measures are unique, when multiple measures occur, when measures have smooth densities, and under which conditions finite-time blow-up occurs. We demonstrate the applicability of our results for three nonl…
We investigate the bifurcation phenomena for stochastic systems with multiplicative Gaussian noise, by examining qualitative changes in mean phase portraits. Starting from the Fokker-Planck equation for the probability density function of solution processes, we compute the mean orbits and mean equilibrium states. A change in the number or stability type, when a parameter varies, indicates a stochastic bifurcation. Specifically, we study stochastic bifurcation for three prototypical dynamical systems (i.e., saddle-node, transcritical, and pitchfork systems) under multiplicative Gaussian noise, …
We propose a general mechanism by which strange non-chaotic attractors (SNA) are created during the collision of invariant curves in quasiperiodically forced systems. This mechanism is first discussed on an heuristic level and by means of simulations. In the considered examples, a stable and an unstable invariant circle undergo a saddle-node bifurcation, but instead of a neutral invariant curve there exists a strange non-chaotic attractor-repeller pair at the bifurcation point. This process is accompanied by a very characteristic behaviour of the invariant curves prior to their collision, whic…
In our previous work [Chiba, Medvedev, arXiv:1612.06493], we initiated a mathematical investigation of the onset of synchronization in the Kuramoto model (KM) of coupled phase oscillators on convergent graph sequences. There, we derived and rigorously justified the mean field limit for the KM on graphs. Using linear stability analysis, we identified the critical values of the coupling strength, at which the incoherent state looses stability, thus, determining the onset of synchronization in this model. In the present paper, we study the corresponding bifurcation. Specifically, we show that sim…
Two dynamical models that have been proposed to describe transitions between low and high confinement states (L-H transitions) in confined plasmas are analysed using singularity theory and stability theory. It is shown that the stationary-state bifurcation sets have qualitative properties identical to standard normal forms for the pitchfork and transcritical bifurcations. The analysis yields the codimension of the highest-order singularities, from which we find that the unperturbed systems are overdetermined bifurcation problems and derive appropriate universal unfoldings. Questions of mutual …
