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Types of Bifurcations Explained

The document discusses different types of bifurcations including fold (saddle node), transcritical, pitchfork, and Hopf bifurcations. A bifurcation is an abrupt change in qualitative behavior as a parameter is varied, such as equilibria appearing or becoming stable/unstable. Fold bifurcations involve equilibria appearing or disappearing. Pitchfork bifurcations can be supercritical or subcritical depending on stability of equilibria. Hopf bifurcations involve a stable limit cycle emerging through a change in stability of an equilibrium point. Higher dimensional systems can exhibit one-dimensional bifurcations restricted to an invariant subspace.

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26 views5 pages

Types of Bifurcations Explained

The document discusses different types of bifurcations including fold (saddle node), transcritical, pitchfork, and Hopf bifurcations. A bifurcation is an abrupt change in qualitative behavior as a parameter is varied, such as equilibria appearing or becoming stable/unstable. Fold bifurcations involve equilibria appearing or disappearing. Pitchfork bifurcations can be supercritical or subcritical depending on stability of equilibria. Hopf bifurcations involve a stable limit cycle emerging through a change in stability of an equilibrium point. Higher dimensional systems can exhibit one-dimensional bifurcations restricted to an invariant subspace.

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EE C222/ ME C237 - Spring’18 - Lecture 4 Notes1 1

Licensed under a Creative Commons


Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Murat Arcak 4.0 International License.
January 29 2018

Bifurcations

A bifurcation is an abrupt change in qualitative behavior as a parame-


ter is varied. Examples: equilibria or limit cycles appearing/disappearing,
becoming stable/unstable.

Fold Bifurcation

Also known as “saddle node” or “blue sky” bifurcation.


Example: ẋ = µ − x2
√
If µ > 0, two equilibria: x = ∓ µ. If µ < 0, no equilibria.

“bifurcation diagram”

Transcritical Bifurcation

Example: ẋ = µx − x2
(
∂f µ if x = 0
Equilibria: x = 0 and x = µ. = µ − 2x =
∂x −µ if x = µ
µ < 0 : x = 0 is stable, x = µ is unstable
µ > 0 : x = 0 is unstable, x = µ is stable

µ
ee c222/ me c237 - spring’18 - lecture 4 notes 2

Pitchfork Bifurcation

Example: ẋ = µx − x3
√
Equilibria: x = 0 for all µ, x = ∓ µ if µ > 0.

µ<0 µ>0
∂f
∂x x =0 = µ stable unstable
∂f
∂x x =∓√µ = −2µ N/A stable

"supercritical pitchfork”

Example: ẋ = µx + x3
√
Equilibria: x = 0 for all µ, x = ∓ −µ if µ < 0.

µ<0 µ>0
∂f
∂x x =0 = µ stable unstable
∂f
∂x x =∓√−µ = −2µ unstable N/A

"subcritical pitchfork”

Example: ẋ = µx + x3 − x5

fold
subcritical pitchfork
µ
ee c222/ me c237 - spring’18 - lecture 4 notes 3

Hysteresis arising from a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation:

Bifurcation and hysteresis in perception:

Figure 1: Observe the transition from


a man’s face to a sitting woman as
you trace the figures from left to right,
starting with the top row. When does
the opposite transition happen as
you trace back from the end to the
beginning? [Fisher, 1967]

Higher Order Systems

Fold, transcritical, and pitchfork are one-dimensional bifurcations,


as evident from the first order examples above. They occur in higher
order systems too, but are restricted to a one-dimensional manifold.
1D subspace: c1T x = · · · = cnT−1 x = 0
1D manifold: g1 ( x ) = · · · = gn−1 ( x ) = 0
Example 1: ẋ1 = µ − x12
ẋ2 = − x2
A fold bifurcation occurs on the invariant x2 = 0 subspace:

µ>0: x2 µ=0: x2 µ<0: x2

x1 x1 x1
ee c222/ me c237 - spring’18 - lecture 4 notes 4

Example 2: bistable switch (Lecture 1)

ẋ1 = − ax1 + x2
x12
ẋ2 = − bx2
1 + x12

A fold bifurcation occurs at µ , ab = 0.5:

x2 a > 0.5/b
x2 = ax1 a = 0.5/b
a < 0.5/b 2
1 x1
x2 = b 1+ x 2
1

x1

Characteristic of one-dimensional bifurcations:



∂ f
has an eigenvalue at zero
∂x µ=µc , x= x∗ (µc )

where x ∗ (µ) is the equilibrium point undergoing bifurcation and µc


is the critical value at which the bifurcation occurs.
Example 1 above:
" #
∂ f 0 0
= → λ1,2 = 0 , −1
∂x µ=0,x=0 0 −1
Example 2 above:
" #
∂ f −a 1
= 1 → λ1,2 = 0 , −( a + b)
∂x µ= 1 ,x1 =1,x2 = a 2 −b
2

Hopf Bifurcation

Two-dimensional bifurcation unlike the one-dimensional types above.


Example: Supercritical Hopf bifurcation

ẋ1 = x1 (µ − x12 − x22 ) − x2


ẋ2 = x2 (µ − x12 − x22 ) + x1

In polar coordinates:

ṙ = µr − r3
θ̇ = 1
ee c222/ me c237 - spring’18 - lecture 4 notes 5

Note that a positive equilibrium for the r subsystem means a limit


cycle in the ( x1 , x2 ) plane.

µ < 0: stable equilibrium at r = 0


√
µ > 0: unstable equilibrium at r = 0 and stable limit cycle at r = µ

x2

x1

The origin loses stability at µ = 0 and a stable limit cycle emerges.

Example: Subcritical Hopf bifurcation

ṙ = µr + r3 − r5
θ̇ = 1
x2

x1

Phase portrait for −0.25 < µ < 0:


x2

x1

Characteristic of the Hopf bifurcation:



∂ f
has complex conjugate eigenvalues
∂x µ=µc , x= x∗ (µc )
on the imaginary axis.

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