Paper 3, Section II, C
Explain what is meant by a steady-state bifurcation of a fixed point of a dynamical system in , where is a real parameter.
Consider the system in , with ,
(i) Show that both the fixed point and the fixed point have a steady-state bifurcation when .
(ii) By finding the first approximation to the extended centre manifold, construct the normal form near the bifurcation point when is close to unity, and show that there is a transcritical bifurcation there. Explain why the symmetries of the equations mean that the bifurcation at must be of pitchfork type.
(iii) Show that two fixed points with exist in the range . Show that the solution with is stable. Identify the bifurcation that occurs at .
(iv) Draw a sketch of the values of at the fixed points as functions of , indicating the bifurcation points and the regions where each branch is stable. [Detailed calculations are not required.]