Global higher bifurcations in coupled systems of nonlinear eigenvalue problems

Abstract

SynopsisCoexistent steady-state solutions to a Lotka–Volterra model for two freely-dispersing competing species have been shown by several authors to arise as global secondary bifurcation phenomena. In this paper we establish conditions for the existence of global higher dimensional n-ary bifurcation in general systems of multiparameter nonlinear eigenvalue problems which preserve the coupling structure of diffusive steady-state Lotka–Volterra models. In establishing our result, we mainly employ the recently-developed multidimensional global multiparameter theory of Alexander–Antman. Conditions for ternary steady-state bifurcation in the three species diffusive competition model are given as an application of the result.