arXiv subjects

Isabel S. Labouriau

Publications and source records attributed to Isabel S. Labouriau.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Synchrony and canards in two coupled FitzHugh--Nagumo equations

We describe the fast-slow dynamics of two FitzHugh--Nagumo equations coupled symmetrically through the slow equations. We use symmetry arguments to find a non-empty open set of parameter values for which the two equations synchronise, and another set with antisynchrony -- where the solution of one equation is minus the solution of the other. By combining the dynamics within the synchrony and antisynchrony subspaces, we also obtain bistability -- where these two types of solution coexist as hyperbolic attractors. They persist under small perturbation of the parameters. Canards are shown to give rise to mixed-mode oscillations. They also initiate small amplitude transient oscillations before the onset of large amplitude relaxation oscillations. We also discuss briefly the effect of asymmetric coupling, with periodic forcing of one of the equations by the other. We illustrate our results with numerical simulations.

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arXiv2024

Bifurcations and canards in the FitzHugh-Nagumo system: a tutorial in fast-slow dynamics

In this article, we study the FitzHugh-Nagumo $(1,1)$--fast-slow system where the vector fields associated to the slow/fast equations come from the reduction of the Hodgin-Huxley model for the nerve impulse. After deriving dynamical properties of the singular and regular cases, we perform a bifurcation analysis and we investigate how the parameters (of the affine slow equation) impact the dynamics of the system. The study of codimension one bifurcations and the numerical locus of canards concludes this case-study. All theoretical results are numerically illustrated.

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arXiv2023

Transitions of bifurcation diagrams of a forced heteroclinic cycle

A family of periodic perturbations of an attracting robust heteroclinic cycle defined on the two-sphere is studied by reducing the analysis to that of a one-parameter family of maps on a circle. The set of zeros of the family forms a bifurcation diagram on the cylinder. The different bifurcation diagrams and the transitions between them are obtained as the strength of attraction of the cycle and the amplitude of the periodic perturbation vary. We determine a threshold in the cycle's attraction strength above which frequency locked periodic solutions with arbitrarily long periods bifurcate from the cycle as the period of the perturbation decreases. Below this threshold further transitions are found giving rise to a frequency locked invariant torus and to a frequency locked suspended horseshoe, arising from heteroclinic tangencies in the family of maps.

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arXiv2023

Global planar dynamics with a star node and contracting nolinearity

This is a complete study of the dynamics of polynomial planar vector fields whose linear part is a multiple of the identity and whose nonlinear part is a contracting homogeneous polynomial. The contracting nonlinearity provides the existence of an invariant circle and allows us to obtain a classification through a complete invariant for the dynamics, extending previous work by other authors that was mainly concerned with the existence and number of limit cycles. The general results are also applied to some classes of examples: definite nonlinearities, $\ZZ_2\oplus\ZZ_2$ symmetric systems and nonlinearities of degree 3, for which we provide complete sets of phase portraits.

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arXiv2023

Stability of cycles and survival in a Jungle Game with four species

The Jungle Game is used in population dynamics to describe cyclic competition among species that interact via a food chain. The dynamics of the Jungle Game supports a heteroclinic network whose cycles represent coexisting species. The stability of all heteroclinic cycles in the network for the Jungle Game with four species determines that only three species coexist in the long-run, interacting under cyclic dominance as a Rock-Paper-Scissors Game. This is in stark contrast with other interactions involving four species, such as cyclic interaction and intraguild predation. We use the Jungle Game with four species to determine the success of a fourth species invading a population of Rock-Paper-Scissors players.

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arXiv2023

High frequency forcing of an attracting heteroclinic cycle

This article is concerned with the effect of time-periodic forcing on a vector field exhibiting an attracting heteroclinic network. We show that as the forcing frequency tends to infinity, the dynamics reduces to that of a network under constant forcing, the constant being the average value of the forcing term. We also show that under small constant forcing the network breaks up into an attracting periodic solution that persists for periodic forcing of high frequency.

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arXiv2021

Periodic forcing of a heteroclinic network

We present a comprehensive mechanism for the emergence of rotational horseshoes and strange attractors in a class of two-parameter families of periodically-perturbed differential equations defining a flow on a three-dimensional manifold. When both parameters are zero, its flow exhibits an attracting heteroclinic network associated to two periodic solutions. After slightly increasing both parameters, while keeping a two-dimensional connection unaltered, we focus our attention in the case where the two-dimensional invariant manifolds of the periodic solutions do not intersect. We prove a wide range of dynamical behaviour, ranging from an attracting quasi-periodic torus to rotational horseshoes and Hénon-like strange attractors. We illustrate our results with an explicit example.

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arXiv2021

Stability of cycles in a game of Rock-Scissors-Paper-Lizard-Spock

We study a system of ordinary differential equations in R5 that is used as a model both in population dynamics and in game theory, and is known to exhibit a heteroclinic network consisting in the union of four types of elementary heteroclinic cycles. We show the asymptotic stability of the network for parameter values in a range compatible with both population and game dynamics. We obtain estimates of the relative attractiveness of each one of the cycles by computing their stability indices. For the parameter values ensuring the asymptotic stability of the network we relate the attractiveness properties of each cycle to the others. In particular, for three of the cycles we show that if one of them has a weak form of attractiveness, then the other two are completely unstable. We also show the existence of an open region in parameter space where all four cycles are completely unstable and the network is asymptotically stable, giving rise to intricate dynamics that has been observed numerically by other authors.

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arXiv2021

Qualitative planar dynamics with star nodes and homogeneous nonlinearities: beyond Hilbert's $16^{th}$ problem

This is a full study of the dynamics of polynomial planar vector fields whose linear part is a multiple of the identity and whose nonlinear part is a homogeneous polynomial of arbitrary degree $n>1$. It extends previous work by other authors that was mainly concerned with the existence and number of limit cycles. The general results are also applied to two classes of examples where the nonlinearities have degrees 2 and 3, for which we provide a set of phase portraits.

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arXiv2020

Recognition of symmetries in reversible maps

We deal with germs of diffeomorphisms that are reversible under an involution. We establish that this condition implies that, in general, both the family of reversing symmetries and the group of symmetries are not finite, in contrast with continuous-time dynamics, where typically there are finitely many reversing symmetries. From this we obtain two chains of fixed-points subspaces of involutory reversing symmetries that we use to obtain geometric information on the discrete dynamics generated by a given diffeomorphism. The results are illustrated by the generic case in arbitrary dimension, when the diffeomorphism is the composition of transversal linear involutions.

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arXiv2019

Asymptotic stability of robust heteroclinic networks

We provide conditions guaranteeing that certain classes of robust heteroclinic networks are asymptotically stable. We study the asymptotic stability of ac-networks --- robust heteroclinic networks that exist in smooth ${\mathbb Z}^n_2$-equivariant dynamical systems defined in the positive orthant of ${\mathbb R}^n$. Generators of the group ${\mathbb Z}^n_2$ are the transformations that change the sign of one of the spatial coordinates. The ac-network is a union of hyperbolic equilibria and connecting trajectories, where all equilibria belong to the coordinate axes (not more than one equilibrium per axis) with unstable manifolds of dimension one or two. The classification of ac-networks is carried out by describing all possible types of associated graphs. We prove sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability of ac-networks. The proof is given as a series of theorems and lemmas that are applicable to the ac-networks and to more general types of networks. Finally, we apply these results to discuss the asymptotic stability of several examples of heteroclinic networks.

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arXiv2019

Bifurcations from an attracting heteroclinic cycle under periodic forcing

There are few examples of non-autonomous vector fields exhibiting complex dynamics that may be proven analytically. We analyse a family of periodic perturbations of a weakly attracting robust heteroclinic network defined on the two-sphere. We derive the first return map near the heteroclinic cycle for small amplitude of the perturbing term, and we reduce the analysis of the non-autonomous system to that of a two-dimensional map on a cylinder. Interesting dynamical features arise from a discrete-time Bogdanov-Takens bifurcation. When the perturbation strength is small the first return map has an attracting invariant closed curve that is not contractible on the cylinder. Near the centre of frequency locking there are parameter values with bistability: the invariant curve coexists with an attracting fixed point. Increasing the perturbation strength there are periodic solutions that bifurcate into a closed contractible invariant curve and into a region where the dynamics is conjugate to a full shift on two symbols.

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arXiv2019

Chaos in periodically forced reversible vector fields

We discuss the appearance of chaos in time-periodic perturbations of reversible vector fields in the plane. We use the normal forms of codimension~$1$ reversible vector fields and discuss the ways a time-dependent periodic forcing term of pulse form may be added to them to yield topological chaotic behaviour. Chaos here means that the resulting dynamics is semi-conjugate to a shift in a finite alphabet. The results rely on the classification of reversible vector fields and on the theory of topological horseshoes. This work is part of a project of studying periodic forcing of symmetric vector fields.

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arXiv2018

Periodic Functions, Lattices and Their Projections

Functions whose symmetries form a crystallographic group in particular have a lattice of periods, and the set of their level curves forms a periodic pattern. We show how after projecting these functions, one obtains new functions with a lattice of periods that is not the projection of the initial lattice. We also characterise all the crystallographic groups in three dimensions that are symmetry groups of patterns whose projections have periods in a given two-dimensional lattice. The particular example of patterns that after projection have a hexagonal lattice of periods is discussed in detail.

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arXiv2018

Stability of a heteroclinic network and its cycles: a case study from Boussinesq convection

This article is concerned with three heteroclinic cycles forming a heteroclinic network in ${\mathbb R}^6$. The stability of the cycles and of the network are studied. The cycles are of a type that has not been studied before, and provide an illustration for the difficulties arising in dealing with cycles and networks in high dimension. In order to obtain information on the stability for the present network and cycles, in addition to the information on eigenvalues and transition matrices, it is necessary to perform a detailed geometric analysis of return maps. Some general results and tools for this type of analysis are also developed here.

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arXiv2017

Projections of Patterns and Mode Interactions

We study solutions of bifurcation problems with periodic boundary conditions, with periods in an $n+1$-dimensional lattice and their projection into $n$-dimensional space through integration of the last variable. We show that generically the projection of a single mode solution is a mode interaction. This can be applied to the study of black-eye patterns.

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arXiv2017

On Takens' Last Problem: tangencies and time averages near heteroclinic networks

We obtain a structurally stable family of smooth ordinary differential equations exhibiting heteroclinic tangencies for a dense subset of parameters. We use this to find vector fields $C^2$-close to an element of the family exhibiting a tangency, for which the set of solutions with historic behaviour contains an open set. This provides an affirmative answer to Taken's Last Problem (F. Takens (2008) Nonlinearity, 21(3) T33--T36). A limited solution with historic behaviour is one for which the time averages do not converge as time goes to infinity. Takens' problem asks for dynamical systems where historic behaviour occurs persistently for initial conditions in a set with positive Lebesgue measure. The family appears in the unfolding of a degenerate differential equation whose flow has an asymptotically stable heteroclinic cycle involving two-dimensional connections of non-trivial periodic solutions. We show that the degenerate problem also has historic behaviour, since for an open set of initial conditions starting near the cycle, the time averages approach the boundary of a polygon whose vertices depend on the centres of gravity of the periodic solutions and their Floquet multipliers. We illustrate our results with an explicit example where historic behaviour arises $C^2$-close of a $\textbf{SO(2)}$-equivariant vector field.

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arXiv2016

Global Saddles for Planar Maps

We study the dynamics of planar diffeomorphisms having a unique fixed point that is a hyperbolic local saddle. We obtain sufficient conditions under which the fixed point is a global saddle. We also address the special case of $D_2$-symmetric maps, for which we obtain a similar result for $C^1$ homeomorphisms. Some applications to differential equations are also given.

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