Singularly perturbed boundary-focus bifurcations

Abstract

We consider smooth systems limiting as ϵ → 0 to piecewise-smooth (PWS) systems with a boundary-focus (BF) bifurcation. After deriving a suitable local normal form, we study the dynamics for the smooth system with sufficiently small but non-zero ϵ , using a combination of geometric singular perturbation theory and blow-up . We show that the type of BF bifurcation in the PWS system determines the bifurcation structure for the smooth system within an ϵ −dependent domain which shrinks to zero as ϵ → 0 , identifying a supercritical Andronov-Hopf bifurcation in one case, and a supercritical Bogdanov-Takens bifurcation in two other cases. We also show that PWS cycles associated with BF bifurcations persist as relaxation oscillations in the smooth system, and prove existence of a family of stable limit cycles which connects the relaxation oscillations to regular cycles within the ϵ −dependent domain described above. Our results are applied to models for Gause predator-prey interaction and mechanical oscillation subject to friction.