A systematic study of heteroclinic cycles in dynamical systems with broken symmetries

Abstract

Let X be a Banach space or a manifold and G a compact Lie group acting on X. We study G-equivariant (semi)flows on X in the context of forced symmetry breaking. After applying small symmetry breaking perturbations, certain generic invariant manifolds of the above flows persist slightly changed. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of heteroclinic cycles on the perturbed manifolds. Applications are given for the case G = SO(3).