Local bifurcation analysis of a four-dimensional hyperchaotic system

Local bifurcation phenomena in a four-dimensional continuous hyperchaotic system, which has rich and complex dynamical behaviours, are analysed. The local bifurcations of the system are investigated by utilizing the bifurcation theory and the centre manifold theorem, and thus the conditions of the existence of pitchfork bifurcation and Hopf bifurcation are derived in detail. Numerical simulations are presented to verify the theoretical analysis, and they show some interesting dynamics, including stable periodic orbits emerging from the new fixed points generated by pitchfork bifurcation, coexistence of a stable limit cycle and a chaotic attractor, as well as chaos within quite a wide parameter region.