Analysis of bifurcation, chaos and pattern formation in a discrete time and space Gierer Meinhardt system

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the spatiotemporal behaviors of a Gierer–Meinhardt system in discrete time and space form. Through the linear stability analysis, the parametric conditions are gained to ensure the stability of the homogeneous steady state of the system. Based on the bifurcation theory, as well as center manifold theorem, we derive the critical parameter values of the flip, Neimark–Sacker and Turing bifurcation respectively. Besides, the specific parameter expression to form patterns are also determined. In order to identify chaos among regular behaviors, we calculate the Maximum Lyapunov exponents. The results obtained in this paper are illustrated by numerical simulations. From the simulations, we can see some complex dynamics, such as period doubling cascade, invariant cycles, periodic windows, chaotic behaviors, and some striking Turing patterns, e.g. circle, mosaic, spiral, spatiotemporal chaotic patterns and so on, which can be produced by flip-Turing instability, Neimark–Sacker–Turing instability and chaos.