Transitions of bifurcation diagrams of a forced heteroclinic cycle

Abstract

A family of periodic perturbations of an attracting robust heteroclinic cycle defined on the two-sphere is studied by reducing the analysis to that of a one-parameter family of maps on a circle. The set of zeros of the family forms a bifurcation diagram on the cylinder. The different bifurcation diagrams and the transitions between them are obtained as the strength of attraction of the cycle and the amplitude of the periodic perturbation vary. We determine a threshold in the cycle's attraction strength above which frequency locked periodic solutions with arbitrarily long periods bifurcate from the cycle as the period of the perturbation decreases. Below this threshold further transitions are found giving rise to a frequency locked invariant torus and to a frequency locked suspended horseshoe, arising from heteroclinic tangencies in the family of maps.