Bifurcations

The main idea of the present study is to demonstrate that the qualitative theory of diffe­ rential equations, when applied to problems in fluid-and gasdynamics, will contribute to the understanding of qualitative aspects of fluid flows, in particular those concerned with geometrical properties of flow fields such as shape and stability of its streamline patterns. It is obvious that insight into the qualitative structure of flow fields is of great importance and appears as an ultimate aim of flow research.

The authors consider applications of singularity theory and computer algebra to bifurcations of Hamiltonian dynamical systems. They restrict themselves to the case were the following simplification is possible. Near the equilibrium or (quasi-) periodic solution under consideration the linear part allows approximation by a normalized Hamiltonian system with a torus symmetry. It is assumed that reduction by this symmetry leads to a system with one degree of freedom. The volume focuses on two such reduction methods, the planar reduction (or polar coordinates) method and the reduction by the energy momentum mapping.

In a coherent, exhaustive and progressive way, this book presents the tools for studying local bifurcations of limit cycles in families of planar vector fields.