Homoclinic-to-Hyperbolic-Saddle Orbits

To continue HHS orbits in two free parameters, we use an extended defining system that consists of several parts.

First, the infinite time interval is truncated, so that instead of $[-\infty,+\infty]$ we use $[-T,+T]$, which is scaled to $[0,1]$ and divided into mesh-intervals. The mesh is nonuniform and adaptive. Each mesh interval is further subdivided by equidistant fine mesh points. Also, each mesh interval contains a number of collocation points. (This discretization is the same as that in AUTO for boundary value problems.) The equation
\begin{displaymath}
\dot{x}(t) - 2 T f(x(t),\alpha) = 0,
\end{displaymath} (88)

must be satisfied in each collocation point.

The second part is the equilibrium condition
\begin{displaymath}
f(x_0,\alpha) = 0.
\end{displaymath} (89)

Third, there is a so-called phase condition needed for the homoclinic solution, similar to periodic solutions
\begin{displaymath}
\int_0^1 \dot{\widetilde{x}}^*(t)[x(t) -\widetilde{x}(t)]dt = 0.
\end{displaymath} (90)

Here $\widetilde{x}(t)$ is some initial guess for the solution, typically obtained from the previous continuation step. We note that in the literature another phase condition is also used, see, for example [13]. However, in the present implementation we employ the condition (90).

Fourth, there are the homoclinic-specific constraints to the solution. For these we need access to the stable and unstable eigenspaces of the system in the equilibrium point after each step. It is not efficient to recompute the spaces from scratch in each continuation-step. Instead, we use the algorithm for continuing invariant subspaces, as described in [7]. This method adds two small-sized vectors ($Y_S$ and $Y_U$) to the system variables, from which the necessary eigenspaces (stable and unstable, respectively) can easily be computed in each step.

If $Q(0)$ is an orthogonal matrix whose first $m$ columns form a basis for the invariant subspace under consideration in the previous step, and $A=f_x(x_0,\alpha)$ is the Jacobian at the new equilibrium point, then we first compute the so-called Ricatti-blocks, $T_{ij}$, by the formula
\begin{displaymath}
\left[ \begin{array}{cc}T_{11}\ \ T_{12}\\ T_{21}\ \ T_{22}\end{array}\right] =\ Q(0)^T\:A\:Q(0).
\end{displaymath} (91)

If $n$ is the number of state variables, then $T_{11}$ is of size $m \times m$ and $T_{22}$ is $(n-m) \times (n-m)$. This is done for the stable and unstable eigenspaces separately. Now $Y_S$ and $Y_U$ are obtained from the Ricatti equations
\begin{displaymath}
\begin{array}{l}
T_{22U} Y_U\ -\ Y_U T_{11U}\ +\ T_{21U}\...
...{11S}\ +\ T_{21S}\ -\ Y_S \,T_{12S}\, Y_S\ =\ 0.
\end{array}
\end{displaymath} (92)

Now we can formulate constraints on the behavior of the solution close to the equilibrium $x_0$. The initial vector of the orbit, $(x(0) - x_0)$, is placed in the unstable eigenspace of the system in the equilibrium. We express that by the requirement that it is orthogonal to the orthogonal complement of the unstable eigenspace. Using $Y_U$, we can compute the orthogonal complement of the unstable eigenspace. If $Q_U(0)$ is the orthogonal matrix from the previous step, related to the unstable invariant subspace, then a basis for the orthogonal complement in the new step $Q_U^\bot(s)$ is

\begin{displaymath}
Q_U^\bot(s) = Q_U(0) \left[ \begin{array}{c} -Y_{U}^T\\ I \end{array} \right].
\end{displaymath}

Note that $Q_U^\bot(s)$ is not orthogonal. The full orthogonal matrix $Q_{1U}$ needed for the next step, is computed separately after each step. The equations to be added to the system are (after analogous preparatory computations for the stable eigenspace)
\begin{displaymath}
\begin{array}{l}
Q_U^\bot(s)^T(x(0) - x_0) = 0,\\
Q_S^\bot(s)^T(x(1) - x_0) = 0.
\end{array}
\end{displaymath} (93)

Finally, the distances between $x(0)$ (resp., $x(1)$) and $x_0$ must be small enough, so that
\begin{displaymath}
\begin{array}{l}
\left\Vert x(0) - x_0 \right\Vert - \eps...
...ft\Vert x(1) - x_0 \right\Vert - \epsilon_1 = 0.
\end{array}
\end{displaymath} (94)

A system consisting of all equations (88), (89), (90), (92), (93) and (94), is overdetermined. The basic defining system for the continuation of a HHS orbit in two free parameters consists of (88), (89), (92), (93), and (94) with fixed $\epsilon_{0,1}$, so that the phase condition (90) is not used. The variables in this system are stored in one vector. It contains the values of $x(t)$ in the fine mesh points including $x(0)$ and $x(1)$, the truncation time $T$, two free system parameters, the coordinates of the saddle $x_0$, and the elements of the matrices $Y_S$ and $Y_U$. Alternatively, the phase condition (90) can be added if $T$ is kept fixed but $\epsilon_0$ and $\epsilon_1$ are allowed to vary. It is also possible to fix $T$ and $\epsilon_0$, say, and allow $\epsilon_1$ to vary, again with no phase condition. Other combinations are also possible, in particular, when the homotopy method [7] is used to compute a starting homoclinic solution. For more details on the implementation of the homoclinic continuation we refer to [19].