 Square-symmetric cubic steady-state normal form

Independent sign changes and interchange of two coordinates in the natural dihedral group action force the displayed cubic normal form. Apart from the origin, its nondegenerate small equilibria lie on coordinate axes or on the diagonals. An axial branch has squared amplitude $\mu /a$ and eigenvalues $-2\mu ,\mu (1-b/a)$. A diagonal branch has component squared amplitude $\mu /(a+b)$ and eigenvalues $-2\mu ,2\mu (b-a)/(a+b)$. Subtracting the two nonzero equilibrium equations gives $(a-b)(A^2-B^2)=0$, excluding other cubic branches when $a\ne b$.