Hopf bifurcation and heteroclinic orbit in a 3D autonomous chaotic system

In this paper we revisit a 3D autonomous chaotic system, which contains both the modified Lorenz system and the conjugate Chen system, presented in Huang and Yang, Chaos Solitons Fractals 39:567–578, 2009]. First by citing two examples to show the errors and limitations for the local stability of the equilibrium point S ₊ obtained in this literature, we formulate a complete determining criterion for the local stability of S ₊ of this system. Although the local bifurcation problem of this system, mainly for Hopf bifurcation, etc., has been studied, the invoking of incorrect proposition leads to an incorrect result for Hopf bifurcation. We then renew the study of the Hopf bifurcation of this system by utilizing the Project Method. The global bifurcation problem, relatively speaking, should be more difficult than the local bifurcation problem for a given system. However, the global bifurcation problem of this system, to the best of our knowledge, has not been investigated yet in the literatures. So next we consider the global bifurcation problem for this system, mainly for the existence of homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits. Our results, one of which shows the existence of two heteroclinic orbits, not only correct and further supplement the ones obtained in the literature, but also give something new to theoretically help fully understand the occurrence of chaos.