Homoclinic orbits near heteroclinic cycles with one equilibrium and one periodic orbit

Abstract

We analyze homoclinic orbits near codimension-1 and -2 heteroclinic cycles between an equilibrium and a periodic orbit for ordinary differential equations in three or higher dimensions. The main motivation for this study is a self-organized periodic replication process of travelling pulses which has been observed in reaction–diffusion equations. We establish conditions for existence and uniqueness of countably infinite families of curve segments of 1-homoclinic orbits which accumulate at codimension-1 or -2 heteroclinic cycles. The main result shows the bifurcation of a number of curves of 1-homoclinic orbits from such codimension-2 heteroclinic cycles which depends on a winding number of the transverse set of heteroclinic points. In addition, a leading order expansion of the associated curves in parameter space is derived. Its coefficients are periodic with one frequency from the imaginary part of the leading stable Floquet exponents of the periodic orbit and one from the winding number.