Cubic centre-manifold reduction of porous magnetoconvection ($\dot{a}=\frac{\sigma \zeta }{\zeta -\sigma q}\mu a+\frac{3\sigma q}{\zeta (\zeta -\sigma q)}{a}^3+\cdots$)

For three-mode porous magnetoconvection, set $\mu =r-1-q$ and assume $0<q<\zeta /\sigma$. The transverse eigenvalues are negative. Centre-manifold invariance givesSubstitution into the first equation gives the displayed positive linear and cubic coefficients. Thus the bifurcation is a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation: the origin is stable for $\mu <0$ and unstable for $\mu >0$, while the small nonzero branches at $a^2=-{\zeta }^2\mu /(3q)$ are unstable. Simply setting $\dot{b}=0$ misses the time-derivative contribution responsible for the common factor $(1-\sigma q/\zeta {)}^{-1}$.