Stability and Bifurcations in Time-Delay Systems: A Novel and Efficient Blend of Methods

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to introduce a hybrid technique, combining two existing methods con- veniently, to analyze the stability and bifurcations of equilibrium points and periodic orbits in delay-differential equations of retarded type. One method is called the frequency-domain approach, an analytical tool based on control theory allowing to detect and represent periodic solutions emerging from the Hopf bifurcations, via Fourier series and harmonic balances. The sec- ond one, the so-called semi-discretization method, provides a numerical scheme to approximate the monodromy operator of a periodic solution, thus permitting to establish the stability and bifurcations of limit cycles as well as analyzing the equilibrium points. It is shown that a proper combination of these methods provides a straightforward strategy to study both local and global bifurcations in time-delay systems. The usefulness of the proposed approach is shown by three examples, where the results are compared with those given by the software DDE-BIFTOOL.