 Solution

Now $G(x)=x[{\mu }^2-(x^2-a{)}^2]$. The zero point exists for all parameters and has eigenvalue $G^{\prime }(0)={\mu }^2-a^2$, so it is stable for $|\mu |<|a|$ and unstable for $|\mu |>|a|$. At every nonzero fixed point,Both outer branches are stable and both inner branches unstable.

For $a>0$, the nonzero locations are as in part (i). At $(\mu ,x)=(\pm a,0)$ the local equation is $\dot{x}=({\mu }^2-a^2)x+2a{x}^3+O(x^5)$: these are subcritical pitchfork bifurcations, with the two unstable inner branches present on the side where zero is stable. At the bifurcation itself $\dot{x}\sim 2a{x}^3$, so zero is unstable. At $(0,\pm \sqrt{a})$ the inner and outer branches cross and exchange stability in transcritical bifurcations. The positive crossing is semistable, attracting from the right; the negative crossing is semistable, attracting from the left, because the additional factor $x$ reverses the local flow there.

For $a<0$, the outer stable pair exists only for $|\mu |>|a|$. The points $(\pm |a|,0)$ are supercritical pitchfork bifurcations, since the cubic coefficient $2a$ is negative. Zero loses stability as $|\mu |$ increases across $|a|$, and a stable symmetric pair appears. At the threshold zero remains nonlinearly stable, with $\dot{x}\sim 2a{x}^3$. There are no further bifurcations. The second row of the preceding figure gives the diagrams. The plots use $a=\pm 1$; the general locations are obtained from the formulas above.