Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/ii/paper-2/33a/a/solution

A transcritical bifurcation has normal form
Its equilibrium branches are and . Linearization gives derivative on the first and on the second, so the branches cross at and exchange stability: for , is stable and unstable; for the labels reverse.
A small constant perturbation
has equilibria . For the two branches avoid the crossing; for there is a parameter interval with no equilibrium, bounded by two saddle-node points. Thus arbitrarily small perturbations change the bifurcation diagram, so the crossing is not structurally stable.

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