Chaos in a low-order model of magnetoconvection

In the limit of tall, thin rolls, weakly nonlinear convection in a vertical magnetic field is described by an asymptotically exact third-order set of ordinary differential equations. These equations are shown here to have three codimension-two bifurcation points: a Takens-Bogdanov bifurcation, at which a gluing bifurcation is created; a point at which the gluing bifurcation is replaced by a pair of homoclinic explosions between which there are Lorenz-like chaotic trajectories; and a new type of bifurcation point at which the first of a cascade of period-doubling bifurcation lines originates. The last two bifurcation points are analysed in terms of a one-dimensional map. The equations also have a T-point, at which there is a heteroclinic connection between a saddle and a pair of saddle-foci; emerging from this point is a line of Shil'nikov bifurcations, involving homoclinic connections to a saddle-focus

A phenomenological approach to normal form modeling: a case study in laser induced nematodynamics

An experimental setting for the polarimetric study of optically induced dynamical behavior in nematic liquid crystal films has allowed to identify most notably some behavior which was recognized as gluing bifurcations leading to chaos. This analysis of the data used a comparison with a model for the transition to chaos via gluing bifurcations in optically excited nematic liquid crystals previously proposed by G. Demeter and L. Kramer. The model of these last authors, proposed about twenty years before, does not have the central symmetry which one would expect for minimal dimensional models for chaos in nematics in view of the time series. What we show here is that the simplest truncated normal forms for gluing, with the appropriate symmetry and minimal dimension, do exhibit time signals that are embarrassingly similar to the ones found using the above mentioned experimental settings. The gluing bifurcation scenario itself is only visible in limited parameter ranges and substantial aspect of the chaos that can be observed is due to other factors. First, out of the immediate neighborhood of the homoclinic curve, nonlinearity can produce expansion leading to chaos when combined with the recurrence induced by the homoclinic behavior. Also, pairs of symmetric homoclinic orbits create extreme sensitivity to noise, so that when the noiseless approach contains a rich behavior, minute noise can transform the complex damping into sustained chaos. Leonid Shil'nikov taught us that combining global considerations and local spectral analysis near critical points is crucial to understand the phenomenology associated to homoclinic bifurcations. Here this helps us construct a phenomenological approach to modeling experiments in nonlinear dissipative contexts.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure

Dynamic complexity in a Keynesian growth-cycle model involving Harrod's instability

economic dynamics, chaotic fluctuations, business cycle, Harrod's dynamics, E12, E32, C62,