A singular approach to discontinuous vector fields on the plane

In this paper we deal with discontinuous vector fields on R² and we prove that the analysis of their local behavior around a typical singularity can be treated via singular perturbation. The regularization process developed by Sotomayor and Teixeira is crucial for the development of this work.     

Pseudo-normal form near saddle-center or saddle-focus equilibria

In this paper we introduce the pseudo-normal form, which generalizes the notion of normal form around an equilibrium. Its convergence is proved for a general analytic system in a neighborhood of a saddle-center or a saddle-focus equilibrium point. If the system is Hamiltonian or reversible, this pseudo-normal form coincides with the Birkhoff normal form, so we present a new proof in these celebrated cases. From the convergence of the pseudo-normal form for a general analytic system several dynamical consequences are derived, like the existence of local invariant objects.     

Analytic integrability and characterization of centers for nilpotent singular points

A method which provides necessary conditions to obtain a local analytic first integral in a neighborhood of a nilpotent singular point is developed. As an application we provide sufficient conditions in order that systems of the form where P_n and Q_n are homogeneous polynomials of degree n = 2, 3, 4, 5 have a local analytic first integral of the form H=y²+F(x, y), where F starts with terms of order higher than 2. We remark that, in general, the existence of such integral is only guaranteed when the singular point is a nilpotent center and the system has a formal first integral, see [6]. Therefore, we characterize the nilpotent centers of systems which have a local analytic first integral.     

A new approach to center conditions for simple analytic monodromic singularities

In this paper we present an alternative algorithm for computing Poincaré-Lyapunov constants of simple monodromic singularities of planar analytic vector fields based on the concept of inverse integrating factor. Simple monodromic singular points are those for which after performing the first (generalized) polar blow-up, there appear no singular points. In other words, the associated Poincaré return map is analytic. An improvement of the method determines a priori the minimum number of Poincaré-Lyapunov constants which must cancel to ensure that the monodromic singularity is in fact a center when the explicit Laurent series of an inverse integrating factor is known in (generalized) polar coordinates. Several examples show the usefulness of the method.     

Limit cycles in slow-fast codimension 3 saddle and elliptic bifurcations

This paper deals with local bifurcations occurring near singular points of planar slow-fast systems. In particular, it is concerned with the study of the slow-fast variant of the unfolding of a codimension 3 nilpotent singularity. The slow-fast variant of a codimension 1 Hopf bifurcation has been studied extensively before and its study has lead to the notion of canard cycles in the Van der Pol system. Similarly, codimension 2 slow-fast Bogdanov–Takens bifurcations have been characterized. Here, the singularity is of codimension 3 and we distinguish slow-fast elliptic and slow-fast saddle bifurcations. We focus our study on the appearance on small-amplitude limit cycles, and rely on techniques from geometric singular perturbation theory and blow-up.     

Center conditions and bifurcation of limit cycles at degenerate singular points in a quintic polynomial differential system

The center problem and bifurcation of limit cycles for degenerate singular points are far to be solved in general. In this paper, we study center conditions and bifurcation of limit cycles at the degenerate singular point in a class of quintic polynomial vector field with a small parameter and eight normal parameters. We deduce a recursion formula for singular point quantities at the degenerate singular points in this system and reach with relative ease an expression of the first five quantities at the degenerate singular point. The center conditions for the degenerate singular point of this system are derived. Consequently, we construct a quintic system, which can bifurcates 5 limit cycles in the neighborhood of the degenerate singular point. The positions of these limit cycles can be pointed out exactly without constructing Poincaré cycle fields. The technique employed in this work is essentially different from more usual ones. The recursion formula we present in this paper for the calculation of singular point quantities at degenerate singular point is linear and then avoids complex integrating operations.     

Characterization of domains of self-adjoint ordinary differential operators

The GKN (Glazman, Krein, Naimark) Theorem characterizes all self-adjoint realizations of linear symmetric (formally self-adjoint) ordinary differential equations in terms of maximal domain functions. These functions depend on the coefficients and this dependence is implicit and complicated. In the regular case an explicit characterization in terms of two-point boundary conditions can be given. In the singular case when the deficiency index d is maximal the GKN characterization can be made more explicit by replacing the maximal domain functions by a solution basis for any real or complex value of the spectral parameter λ. In the much more difficult intermediate cases, not all solutions contribute to the singular self-adjoint conditions. In 1986 Sun found a representation of the self-adjoint singular conditions in terms of certain solutions for nonreal values of λ. In this paper we give a representation in terms of certain solutions for real λ. This leads to a classification of solutions as limit-point (LP) or limit-circle (LC) in analogy with the celebrated Weyl classification in the second-order case. The LC solutions contribute to the singular boundary conditions, the LP solutions do not. The advantage of using real λ is not only because it is, in general, easier to find explicit solutions but, more importantly, it yields information about the spectrum.     

One-dimensional steady-state Poisson-Nernst-Planck systems for ion channels with multiple ion species

The one-dimensional Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) system is a basic model for ion flow through membrane channels. If the Debye length is much smaller than the characteristic radius of the channel, the PNP system can be treated as a singularly perturbed system. We provide a geometric framework for the study of the steady-state PNP system involving multiple types of ion species with multiple regions of piecewise constant permanent charge. Special structures of this particular problem are revealed, which together with the general framework allows one to reduce the existence and multiplicity of singular orbits to a system of nonlinear algebraic equations. Near each singular orbit, an application of the exchange lemma from the geometric singular perturbation theory gives rise to the existence and (local) uniqueness of a solution of the singular boundary value problem. A new phenomenon on multiplicity and spatial behavior of steady-states involving three or more types of ion species is discovered in an example. (The phenomenon cannot occur when only two types of ion species are involved.)     

Two-dimensional Fuchsian systems and the Chebyshev property

Let (x(t),y(t))^? be a solution of a Fuchsian system of order two with three singular points. The vector space of functions of the form P(t)x(t)+Q(t)y(t), where P,Q are real polynomials, has a natural filtration of vector spaces, according to the asymptotic behavior of the functions at infinity. We describe a two-parameter class of Fuchsian systems, for which the corresponding vector spaces obey the Chebyshev property (the maximal number of isolated zeros of each function is less than the dimension of the vector space). Up to now, only a few particular systems were known to possess such a non-oscillation property. It is remarkable that most of these systems are of the type studied in the present paper. We apply our results in estimating the number of limit cycles that appear after small polynomial perturbations of several quadratic or cubic Hamiltonian systems in the plane.     

Bifurcations of limit cycles from infinity for a class of quintic polynomial system

In this work, we use an indirect method to investigate bifurcations of limit cycles at infinity for a class of quintic polynomial system, in which the problem for bifurcations of limit cycles from infinity be transferred into that from the origin. By the computation of singular point values, the conditions of the origin (correspondingly, infinity) to be the highest degree fine focus are derived. Consequently, we construct a quintic system with a small parameter and eight normal parameters, which can bifurcates 1 to 8 limit cycles from infinity respectively, when let normal parameters be suitable values. The positions of these limit cycles without constructing Poincaré cycle fields can be pointed out exactly.     

A normal form for pure differential algebraic systems

In this paper linear time-invariant differential algebraic equations (DAEs) are studied; the focus is on pure DAEs which are DAEs without an ordinary differential equation (ODE) part. A normal form for pure DAEs is given which is similar to the Byrnes-Isidori normal form for ODEs. Furthermore, the normal form exhibits a Kalman-like decomposition into impulse-controllable- and impulse-observable states. This leads to a characterization of impulse-controllability and observability.     

First integrals and normal forms for germs of analytic vector fields

For a germ of analytic vector fields, the existence of first integrals, resonance and the convergence of normalization transforming the vector field to a normal form are closely related. In this paper we first provide a link between the number of first integrals and the resonant relations for a quasi-periodic vector field, which generalizes one of the Poincaré's classical results [H. Poincaré, Sur l'intégration des équations différentielles du premier order et du premier degré I and II, Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo 5 (1891) 161-191; 11 (1897) 193-239] on autonomous systems and Theorem 5 of [Weigu Li, J. Llibre, Xiang Zhang, Local first integrals of differential systems and diffeomorphism, Z. Angew. Math. Phys. 54 (2003) 235-255] on periodic systems. Then in the space of analytic autonomous systems in C2n with exactly n resonances and n functionally independent first integrals, our results are related to the convergence and generic divergence of the normalizations. Lastly for a planar Hamiltonian system it is well known that the system has an isochronous center if and only if it can be linearizable in a neighborhood of the center. Using the Euler-Lagrange equation we provide a new approach to its proof.     

Direction-Reversing Traveling Waves in the Even Fermi-Pasta-Ulam Lattice

Summary. This paper considers the famous Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) lattice with periodic boundary conditions and quartic nonlinearities. Due to special resonances and discrete symmetries, the Birkhoff normal form of this Hamiltonian system is Liouville integrable. The normal form equations can easily be solved if the number of particles in the lattice is odd, but if the number of particles is even, several nontrivial phenomena occur. In the latter case we observe that the phase space of the normal form is decomposed in invariant subspaces that describe the interaction between the Fourier modes with wave number j and the Fourier modes with wave number n / 2-j . We study how the level sets of the integrals of the normal form foliate these invariant subspaces. The integrable foliations turn out to be singular and the method of singular reduction shows that the normal form has invariant pinched tori and monodromy. Monodromy is an obstruction to the existence of global action-angle variables. The pinched tori are interpreted as homoclinic and heteroclinic connections between traveling waves. Thus we discover a class of solutions of the normal form which can be described as direction-reversing traveling waves. The relation between the FPU lattice and its Birkhoff normal form can be understood from KAM theory and approximation theory. This explains why we observe the impact of the direction-reversing traveling waves numerically as a relaxation oscillation in the original FPU system.     

Singular perturbations and vanishing passage through a turning point

The paper deals with planar slow-fast cycles containing a unique generic turning point. We address the question on how to study canard cycles when the slow dynamics can be singular at the turning point. We more precisely accept a generic saddle-node bifurcation to pass through the turning point. It reveals that in this case the slow divergence integral is no longer the good tool to use, but its derivative with respect to the layer variable still is. We provide general results as well as a number of applications. We show how to treat the open problems presented in Artés et al. (2009) [1] and Dumortier and Rousseau (2009) [13], dealing respectively with the graphics DI2a and DF1a from Dumortier et al. (1994) [14].     

Compactification and desingularization of spaces of polynomial Liénard equations

The paper deals with polynomial Liénard equations of type (m,n), i.e. planar vector fields associated to a scalar second order differential equation , with f and g polynomials of respective degree m and n. It is shown that, besides compactifying the phase plane, or the Liénard plane, one can also compactify and desingularize the space of Liénard equations of type (m,n) for each (m,n) separately, by adding both singular perturbation problems and Hamiltonian perturbation problems.     

Linearly implicit Liénard systems

The presence of nonlinearities in the capacitance and the inductance in van der Pol type electrical circuits defines a linearly implicit (or quasilinear) counterpart of the classical Liénard systems. When the reactances remain positive, the existence of a unique attracting periodic solution follows, with minor modifications, as in the classical setting. Novel results are obtained when the values of reactances may vanish at certain points of the state space; these points yield singularities of the model, and the existence of an attracting periodic solution can be characterized in terms of the behavior of certain smooth solutions crossing the singular manifold through so-called I-singularities.     

Embedding smooth diffeomorphisms in flows

In this paper we study the problem on embedding germs of smooth diffeomorphisms in flows in higher dimensional spaces. First we prove the existence of embedding vector fields for a local diffeomorphism with its nonlinear term a resonant polynomial. Then using this result and the normal form theory, we obtain a class of local Ck diffeomorphisms for k∈N∪{∞,ω} which admit embedding vector fields with some smoothness. Finally we prove that for any k∈N∪{∞} under the coefficient topology the subset of local Ck diffeomorphisms having an embedding vector field with some smoothness is dense in the set of all local Ck diffeomorphisms.     

Analysis of nonlinear fractional control systems in Banach spaces

In this paper, we consider the nonlinear control systems of fractional order and its optimal controls in Banach spaces. Using the fractional calculus, Hölder’s inequality, p-mean continuity, weakly singular inequality and Leray-Schauder’s fixed point theorem with compact mapping, the sufficient condition is given for the existence and uniqueness of mild solutions for a broad class of fractional nonlinear infinite dimensional control systems. Utilizing the approximately lower semicontinuity of integral functionals and weakly compactness, we extend the existence result of optimal controls for nonlinear control systems to nonlinear fractional control systems under generally mild conditions. An example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the results obtained.     

Stable phase-locked periodic solutions in a delay differential system

For a delay differential system where the nonlinearity is motivated by applications of neural networks to spatiotemporal pattern association and can be regarded as a perturbation of a step function, we obtain the existence, stability and limiting profile of a phase-locked periodic solution using an approach very much similar to the asymptotic expansion of inner and outer layers in the analytic method of singular perturbation theory.     

A singular initial value problem and self-similar solutions of a nonlinear dissipative wave equation

We present a systematic study of local solutions of the ODE of the form near t=0. Such ODEs occur in the study of self-similar radial solutions of some second order PDEs. A general theorem of existence and uniqueness is established. It is shown that there is a dichotomy between the cases γ>0 and γ<0, where γ=∂f/∂x^′ at t=0. As an application, we study the singular behavior of self-similar radial solutions of a nonlinear wave equation with superlinear damping near an incoming light cone. A smoothing effect is observed as the incoming waves are focused at the tip of the cone.