Area-preserving seasonal predator-prey map 2026-10-14
The annual pulse-breeding predator-prey model is an area-preserving map in logarithmic population coordinates: , then . Each step is a shear of determinant one. At a positive fixed point, the ordinary-population Jacobian matrix has determinant one and trace . Eigenvalues lie on the unit circle for , but this linear neutrality does not prove nonlinear stability at every resonance. Area preservation excludes an isolated attracting positive periodic cycle.
Neimark–Sacker bifurcation 2026-10-13
A Neimark–Sacker bifurcation of a smooth planar map occurs when a simple complex-conjugate pair of fixed-point Floquet multipliers crosses the unit circle away from low-order resonances. If its radial normal form is with , a small invariant closed curve has . For it appears on , where the fixed point has become unstable, and its radial Floquet multiplier is , so the bifurcation is supercritical. For the curve lies on and is unstable, giving a subcritical bifurcation. Area-preserving maps have a vanishing cubic radial drift at an elliptic point and do not meet this dissipative nondegeneracy condition.
Nonlinear shear map 2026-10-14
This triangular planar map has diagonal Jacobian matrix entries one and determinant one, for differentiable . Its inverse subtracts , so it is an area-preserving map. The analogous vertical map has the same property. Their composition preserves area even when the shifts are nonlinear, as in the logarithmic area-preserving seasonal predator-prey map.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 46 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use a Poincaré map sampled once per forcing period. A hyperbolic periodic trajectory has stable manifolds containing parcels that approach it under forward iteration and unstable manifolds containing parcels that approach it under backward iteration. In the integrable limit the relevant branches coincide along a heteroclinic orbit and form a barrier between neighboring cells.
A transverse crossing in the perturbed map means that this barrier has split: a parcel on the intersection belongs to both asymptotic manifolds, and adjoining branches enclose fluid lobes transported across the former boundary. Iteration stretches and folds those lobes. In the connected heteroclinic network this creates complicated intercell transport and chaotic advection. The crossing is between invariant curves at the same forcing phase; it does not mean that different trajectories cross at one time in violation of uniqueness.
The incompressible flow gives an area-preserving map, so lobe exchange preserves parcel area. Without diffusion, an advected passive scalar also keeps its value on each trajectory. Therefore manifold intersections can generate fine filaments and efficient advective exchange but do not by themselves produce molecular homogenization, nor prove that every region of the flow becomes chaotic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 85 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
At a fixed point , the quadratic equation is . ConsequentlyThe Jacobian matrix is , and its Floquet multipliers solve . The Jury stability criterion requires and , . With , this becomes , . The lower branch never satisfies it; the upper branch is attracting precisely whenAt the lower boundary the two fixed points merge with Floquet multipliers , a saddle-node bifurcation for . At the upper boundary the upper point has Floquet multipliers , giving a generic period-doubling bifurcation for .
Its direction can be established explicitly. A distinct two-cycle alternates values satisfying , . Subtracting gives , and substitution givesIt exists beyond the fixed-point period-doubling bifurcation. The second-iterate Jacobian matrix has determinant and trace . Applying the same stability inequalities shows attraction for andThus the first period-doubling bifurcation is supercritical; the next upper boundary has a Floquet multiplier for the two-cycle. These are the fixed-point and two-cycle thresholds of the Hénon map.
At the map preserves phase-space area, so attraction is impossible. The fixed-point fold is at , with double Floquet multiplier , and is a conservative saddle-centre bifurcation. The upper branch is linearly elliptic for ; the lower branch is a saddle fixed point of a map. At , the upper branch has double Floquet multiplier and becomes a saddle fixed point of a map for larger . The two-cycle is elliptic for , then reaches double Floquet multiplier for the second iterate at . The partial sketch distinguishes elliptic, neutrally stable Floquet multipliers from attracting states. Resonances may require additional nonlinear analysis; unit Floquet multiplier moduli alone do not prove nonlinear Lyapunov stability.
The segment is a conservative Hénon stability boundary, not an ordinary nondegenerate dissipative Neimark–Sacker bifurcation. Indeed for constant phase-space area scaling is . A simple invariant closed curve would enclose a bounded invariant set of positive phase-space area, forcing . Thus no such closed invariant curve can bifurcate into within this constant-determinant family.
Generic folds and flips away from these degeneracies persist under sufficiently small smooth perturbations: their simple unit Floquet multiplier, transverse parameter crossing and nonzero leading nonlinear coefficient persist, while the other Floquet multiplier stays away from the unit circle. The implicit function theorem then continues the bifurcation curves and their criticality. The unqualified perturbation claim needs this restriction. Arbitrary perturbations need not preserve the conservative behavior. For example, in local complex coordinates at a nonresonant elliptic fixed point, the area-preserving map property gives a cubic normal form with zero cubic radial damping. Composing with the arbitrarily small radial perturbation introduces radial coefficient . Varying the modulus through one can now give a genuine Neimark–Sacker bifurcation. Conservative degeneracies and resonances are therefore not covered by a blanket structural-stability assertion.
Hénon fixed points and two-cycles at unit area determinant, and local branches of the triangular cubic map
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