 Symmetric homoclinic gluing bifurcation

A symmetric homoclinic gluing bifurcation joins two symmetry-related periodic orbits into one orbit that traverses both lobes of a figure-eight separatrix. At the transition, the two loops are homoclinic orbits to the same saddle equilibrium. The two original cycles spend increasingly long near that saddle before the connection is reached.

A signed transverse coordinate distinguishes the lobes. Reflection can make the corresponding return map odd, so fixed points $x_{\ast }$ and $-x_{\ast }$ represent the separate cycles, while a two-cycle passing between positive and negative coordinates can represent the glued orbit. The signed gluing-map reduction describes the local power-law passage and the global reinjection; its coefficients and saddle eigenvalue ratio determine the existence and stability of these branches.

The geometry alone does not guarantee attracting cycles. For example, the exact Hamiltonian double-well homoclinic orbits form a figure-eight but are surrounded by conserved-energy families, rather than isolated attracting cycles. Dissipation, a suitable parameter unfolding and the return-map conditions must supply the gluing scenario. A damped double-well model with symmetry-related Hopf cycles is one setting in which those conditions can be investigated.