Hopf bifurcation explained

In the mathematical theory of bifurcations, a Hopf bifurcation is a critical point where, as a parameter changes, a system's stability switches and a periodic solution arises.[1] More accurately, it is a local bifurcation in which a fixed point of a dynamical system loses stability, as a pair of complex conjugate eigenvalues—of the linearization around the fixed point—crosses the complex plane imaginary axis as a parameter crosses a threshold value. Under reasonably generic assumptions about the dynamical system, the fixed point becomes a small-amplitude limit cycle as the parameter changes.

A Hopf bifurcation is also known as a Poincaré - Andronov - Hopf bifurcation, named after Henri Poincaré, Aleksandr Andronov and Eberhard Hopf.

Overview

Supercritical and subcritical Hopf bifurcations

The limit cycle is orbitally stable if a specific quantity called the first Lyapunov coefficient is negative, and the bifurcation is supercritical. Otherwise it is unstable and the bifurcation is subcritical.

The normal form of a Hopf bifurcation is the following time-dependent differential equation:

dz
dt

=z((λ+i)+b|z|2),

where zb are both complex and λ is a real parameter.

Write:

b=\alpha+i\beta.

The number α is called the first Lyapunov coefficient.

z(t)=rei

where

r=\sqrt{/\alpha}and\omega=1+\betar2.

The bifurcation is then called supercritical.

Intuition

The normal form of the supercritical Hopf bifurcation can be expressed intuitively in polar coordinates,

dr
dt

=(\mu-r2)r,~~

d\theta
dt

=\omega

where

r(t)

is the instantaneous amplitude of the oscillation and

\theta(t)

is its instantaneous angular position.[2] The angular velocity

(\omega)

is fixed. When

\mu>0

, the differential equation for

r(t)

has an unstable fixed point at

r=0

and a stable fixed point at

r=\sqrt\mu

. The system thus describes a stable circular limit cycle with radius

\sqrt\mu

and angular velocity

\omega

. When

\mu<0

then

r=0

is the only fixed point and it is stable. In that case, the system describes a spiral that converges to the origin.

Cartesian coordinates

The polar coordinates can be transformed into Cartesian coordinates by writing

x=r\cos(\theta)

and

y=r\sin(\theta)

. Differentiating

x

and

y

with respect to time yields the differential equations,
\begin{align} dx
dt

&=

dr
dt

\cos(\theta)-

d\theta
dt

r\sin(\theta)\\ &=(\mu-r2)r\cos(\theta)-\omegar\sin(\theta)\\ &=(\mu-x2-y2)x-\omegay \end{align}

and
\begin{align} dy
dt

&=

dr
dt

\sin(\theta)+

d\theta
dt

r\cos(\theta)\\ &=(\mu-r2)r\sin(\theta)+\omegar\cos(\theta)\\ &=(\mu-x2-y2)y+\omegax. \end{align}

Subcritical case

The normal form of the subcritical Hopf is obtained by negating the sign of

dr/dt

,
dr
dt

=-(\mu-r2)r,~~

d\theta
dt

=\omega

which reverses the stability of the fixed points in

r(t)

. For

\mu>0

the limit cycle is now unstable and the origin is stable.

Example

Hopf bifurcations occur in the Lotka–Volterra model of predator–prey interaction (known as paradox of enrichment), the Hodgkin–Huxley model for nerve membrane potential,[3] the Selkov model of glycolysis,[4] the Belousov - Zhabotinsky reaction, the Lorenz attractor, the Brusselator, and in classical electromagnetism.[5] Hopf bifurcations have also been shown to occur in fission waves.[6]

The Selkov model is

dx
dt

=-x+ay+x2y,~~

dy
dt

=b-ay-x2y.

The figure shows a phase portrait illustrating the Hopf bifurcation in the Selkov model.[7]

In railway vehicle systems, Hopf bifurcation analysis is notably important. Conventionally a railway vehicle's stable motion at low speeds crosses over to unstable at high speeds. One aim of the nonlinear analysis of these systems is to perform an analytical investigation of bifurcation, nonlinear lateral stability and hunting behavior of rail vehicles on a tangent track, which uses the Bogoliubov method.[8]

Serial expansion method

[9]

Consider a system defined by

\ddotx+h(

x,

x,\mu)=0

, where

h

is smooth and

\mu

is a parameter. After a linear transform of parameters, we can assume that as

\mu

increases from below zero to above zero, the origin turns from a spiral sink to a spiral source.

Now, for

\mu>0

, we perform a perturbative expansion using two-timing:x(t) = \epsilon x_1(t, T) + \epsilon^2 x_2(t, T) + \epsilon^3 x_3(t, T) + \cdotswhere

T=\nut

is "slow-time" (thus "two-timing"), and

\epsilon,\nu

are functions of

\mu

. By an argument with harmonic balance (see for details), we can use

\epsilon=\mu1/2,\nu=\mu

. Then, plugging in

x(t)

to

\ddotx+h(

x,

x,\mu)=0

, and expanding up to the

\epsilon3

order, we would obtain three ordinary differential equations in

x1,x2,x3

.

The first equation would be of form

\partialttx1+

2
\omega
0

x1=0

, which gives the solution

x1(t,T)=A(T)\cos(\omega0t+\phi(T))

, where

A(T),\phi(T)

are "slowly varying terms" of

x1

. Plugging it into the second equation, we can solve for

x2(t,T)

.

Then plugging

x1,x2

into the third equation, we would have an equation of form

\partialttx3+

2
\omega
0

x3=...

, with the right-hand-side a sum of trigonometric terms. Of these terms, we must set the "resonance term" -- that is,

\cos(\omega0t),\sin(\omega0t)

-- to zero. This is the same idea as Poincaré–Lindstedt method. This then provides two ordinary differential equations for

A,\phi

, allowing one to solve for the equilibrium value of

A

, as well as its stability.

Example

Consider the system defined by

dx
dt

=\mux+y-x2

and
dy
dt

=-x+\muy+2x2

. The system has an equilibrium point at origin. When

\mu

increases from negative to positive, the origin turns from a stable spiral point to an unstable spiral point.

First, we eliminate

y

from the equations:\frac=\mu x+y-x^2 \implies \ddot x = \mu \dot x + (-x + \mu y + 2x^2)- 2x\dot x \implies \ddot x - 2\mu \dot x + (1+\mu^2)x + 2x\dot x - (2 + \mu)x^2 = 0 Now, perform the perturbative expansion as described above:x(t) = \epsilon x_1(t, T) + \epsilon^2 x_2(t, T) + \cdotswith

\epsilon=\mu1/2,T=\mut

. Expanding up to order

\epsilon3

, we obtain:\begin\partial_x_1 + x_1 = 0\\\partial_x_2+ x_2 = 2x_1^2 - 2x_1 \partial_t x_1\\\partial_x_3 + x_3 = 4x_1x_2 + 2\partial_t(x_1-x_1x_2 - \partial_T x_1)\endFirst equation has solution

x1(t,T)=A(T)\cos(t+\phi(T))

. Here

A(T),\phi(T)

are respectively the "slow-varying amplitude" and "slow-varying phase" of the simple oscillation.

Second equation has solution

x1(t,T)=B\cos(t+\theta)+A2-

13
A

2(\sin(2t+2\phi)+\cos(2t+2\phi))

, where

B,\theta

are also slow-varying amplitude and phase. Now, since

x=\epsilonx1+\epsilon2x2+=\epsilon(A\cos(t+\phi)+\epsilonB\cos(t+\theta))+

, we can merge the two terms

A\cos(t+\phi)+\epsilonB\cos(t+\theta)

as some

C\cos(t+\xi)

.

Thus, without loss of generality, we can assume

B=0

. Thusx_2(t, T) = A^2 - \frac 13 A^2(\sin(2t+2\phi) + \cos(2t+2\phi))Plug into the third equation, we obtain\partial_t^2 x_3 + x_3 + (2A-A^3-2A')\sin(t+\phi)- (2A\phi' +11A^3/3)\cos(t+\phi)+\frac 13 A^3(5\sin(3t+3\phi)-\cos(3t+3\phi))Eliminating the resonance terms, we obtain A' = A-A^3/2, \quad \phi' = -\fracA^2The first equation shows that

A=\sqrt2

is a stable equilibrium. Thus we find that the Hopf bifurcation creates an attracting (rather than repelling) limit cycle.

Plugging in

A=\sqrt2

, we have

\phi=-

11
3

T+\phi0

. We can repick the origin of time to make

\phi0=0

. Now solve for \partial_t^2 x_3 + x_3 + \frac 13 A^3(5\sin(3t+3\phi)-\cos(3t+3\phi))yieldingx_3 = \frac(5\sin(3t + 3\phi)-\cos(3t + 3\phi))Plugging in

A=\sqrt2

back to the expressions for

x1,x2

, we havex_1 = \sqrt 2 \cos(t+\phi), \quad x_2 = 2-\frac 23 (\sin(2t+2\phi) + \cos(2t+2\phi))Plugging them back to

y=x2+

x

-\mux

yields the serial expansion of

y

as well, up to order

\mu3/2

.

Letting

\theta:=t+\phi

for notational neatness, we have

\begin{aligned} x&=&\mu1/2\sqrt{2}\cos\theta+&\mu\left(2-

23
\sin(2\theta)-23
\cos(2\theta)\right)

+&\mu3/2

1
\sqrt{72
} (5\sin(3\theta) - \cos(3\theta))+&O(\mu^2)\\ y &= &-\mu^ \sqrt \sin\theta + &\mu \left(1+\frac 43 \sin(2\theta)-\frac 13 \cos(2\theta)\right) + &\mu^\frac (36\sin\theta + 28\cos\theta - 5\sin(3\theta) + 7\cos(3\theta)) + &O(\mu^2)\end

This provides us with a parametric equation for the limit cycle. This is plotted in the illustration on the right.

Definition of a Hopf bifurcation

The appearance or the disappearance of a periodic orbit through a local change in the stability properties of a fixed point is known as the Hopf bifurcation. The following theorem works for fixed points with one pair of conjugate nonzero purely imaginary eigenvalues. It tells the conditions under which this bifurcation phenomenon occurs.

Theorem (see section 11.2 of). Let

J0

be the Jacobian of a continuous parametric dynamical system evaluated at a steady point

Ze

. Suppose that all eigenvalues of

J0

have negative real part except one conjugate nonzero purely imaginary pair

\pmi\beta

. A Hopf bifurcation arises when these two eigenvalues cross the imaginary axis because of a variation of the system parameters.

Routh - Hurwitz criterion

Routh - Hurwitz criterion (section I.13 of) gives necessary conditions so that a Hopf bifurcation occurs.

Sturm series

Let

p0,~p1,~...~,~pk

be Sturm series associated to a characteristic polynomial

P

. They can be written in the form:

pi(\mu)=ci,0\muk-i+ci,1\muk-i-2+ci,2\muk-i-4+ …

The coefficients

ci,0

for

i

in

\{1,~...~,~k\}

correspond to what is called Hurwitz determinants. Their definition is related to the associated Hurwitz matrix.

Propositions

Proposition 1. If all the Hurwitz determinants

ci,0

are positive, apart perhaps

ck,0

then the associated Jacobian has no pure imaginary eigenvalues.

Proposition 2. If all Hurwitz determinants

ci,0

(for all

i

in

\{0,~...~,~k-2\}

are positive,

ck-1,0=0

and

ck-2,1<0

then all the eigenvalues of the associated Jacobian have negative real parts except a purely imaginary conjugate pair.

The conditions that we are looking for so that a Hopf bifurcation occurs (see theorem above) for a parametric continuous dynamical system are given by this last proposition.

Example

Consider the classical Van der Pol oscillator written with ordinary differential equations:

\left\{ \begin{array}{l} \dfrac{dx}{dt}=\mu(1-y2)x-y,\\ \dfrac{dy}{dt}=x. \end{array} \right.

The Jacobian matrix associated to this system follows:

J=\begin{pmatrix} -\mu(-1+y2)&-2\muyx-1\\ 1&0 \end{pmatrix}.

The characteristic polynomial (in

λ

) of the linearization at (0,0) is equal to:

P(λ)=λ2-\muλ+1.

The coefficients are:

a0=1,a1=-\mu,a2=1


The associated Sturm series is:

\begin{array}{l} p0(λ)=a0λ2-a2\\ p1(λ)=a1λ \end{array}

The Sturm polynomials can be written as (here

i=0,1

):

pi(\mu)=ci,0\muk-i+ci,1\muk-i-2+ci,2\muk-i-4+ …

The above proposition 2 tells that one must have:

c0,0=1>0,c1,0=-\mu=0,c0,1=-1<0.

Because 1 > 0 and -1 < 0 are obvious, one can conclude that a Hopf bifurcation may occur for Van der Pol oscillator if

\mu=0

.

See also

Further reading

  • Guckenheimer . J. . John Guckenheimer . Myers . M. . Sturmfels . B. . Bernd Sturmfels . 1997 . Computing Hopf Bifurcations I . . 34 . 1 . 1–21 . 10.1137/S0036142993253461 . 10.1.1.52.1609 .
  • Book: Hale . J. . Jack K. Hale. Koçak . H. . 1991 . Dynamics and Bifurcations . Texts in Applied Mathematics . 3 . Berlin . Springer-Verlag . 978-3-540-97141-2 . registration .
  • Book: Brian D. . Hassard . Nicholas D. . Kazarinoff . Nicholas D. Kazarinoff. Yieh-Hei . Wan . Theory and Applications of Hopf Bifurcation . New York . Cambridge University Press . 1981 . 0-521-23158-2 .
  • Book: Kuznetsov, Yuri A. . Yuri A. Kuznetsov. 2004 . Elements of Applied Bifurcation Theory . New York . Springer-Verlag . Third . 978-0-387-21906-6 .
  • Book: Strogatz, Steven H. . Steven Strogatz. 1994 . Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos . Addison Wesley . 978-0-7382-0453-6 . registration .

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hopf Bifurcations.. MIT.
  2. Book: Strogatz, Steven H. . 1994 . Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos . Addison Wesley . 978-0-7382-0453-6 . registration .
  3. .
  4. Web site: Selkov Model Wolfram Demo. [demonstrations.wolfram.com ]. 30 September 2012.
  5. López. Álvaro G. 2020-12-01. Stability analysis of the uniform motion of electrodynamic bodies. Physica Scripta. en. 96. 1. 015506. 10.1088/1402-4896/abcad2. 228919333 . 1402-4896.
  6. Osborne . Andrew G. . Deinert . Mark R. . October 2021 . Stability instability and Hopf bifurcation in fission waves . Cell Reports Physical Science . en . 2 . 10 . 100588 . 10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100588. 2021CRPS....200588O . 240589650 . free .
  7. For detailed derivation, see Book: Strogatz, Steven H. . Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos . 1994 . Addison Wesley . 978-0-7382-0453-6 . 205 . registration .
  8. Serajian . Reza . 2011 . Effects of the bogie and body inertia on the nonlinear wheel-set hunting recognized by the hopf bifurcation theory . International Journal of Automotive Engineering . 3 . 4 . 186 - 196.
  9. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-385j-nonlinear-dynamics-and-chaos-fall-2014/c6f658c96c4ab007838a3dba51899a73_MIT18_385JF14_Hopf-Bif.pdf 18.385J / 2.036J Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos Fall 2014: Hopf Bifurcations