For a reflection-symmetric vector field , , introduce , . Differentiating gives and a cubic acceleration with coefficient . The contribution comes from differentiating the first equation's cubic term. Further cubic near-identity transformations can remove nonresonant terms but cannot turn into a nonzero coefficient by a nonsingular scaling. This is a useful check before assigning a generic reflection-symmetric Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation to a calculated Taylor expansion.
Write for the homogeneous cubic correction and for the nilpotent linear part. The chain rule gives the transformed cubic vector field as . Thus the cubic coefficients in the first equation are
while those in the second equation are
Consequently one explicit near-identity transformation is
The transformed equations have no cubic correction in , and only survive in . The cubic coefficients are
This is the cubic elimination at a nilpotent double-zero point; the extra is the nilpotent cubic damping invariant contribution from the first equation. Higher-order terms generated by the substitution are outside the cubic truncation.
The cubic Taylor expansion at the double-zero point is
There are no quadratic or quartic terms because the local vector field is odd under . Set , , and use . The linear transformation is invertible, and the positive time rescaling preserves orbit orientation. With primes denoting , the result is
This supplies the requested cubic functions, with a remainder stronger than .
There is an important normal form check. Setting , straightens the first equation, and differentiating gives
In particular the nilpotent cubic damping invariant is . A nonsingular cubic near-identity transformation and rescaling cannot change this vanishing invariant into the nonzero coefficient in the supplied later normal form. The conclusions for that assumed system are therefore given separately from the independently derived conclusions for the printed original equations.
Adjoin and put . The extended centre manifold is a graph tangent to at the origin. The equations become
Here is fixed. The centre-manifold invariance equation, obtained by the chain rule, is
Write , where and is a homogeneous quadratic polynomial. To quadratic order the centre-manifold invariance equation is
The terms have zero coefficients: their equations are homogeneous, and the operator is invertible on these quadratic polynomials. For , comparison of coefficients gives
Hence , and , giving
Substitution into the equation gives
The constant in the big O notation may depend on fixed . Thus the equations printed in part (b) are the retained terms of the local Taylor series, rather than an exact identity for the full reduced vector field.
For the Hopf bifurcation classification in part (a), set and use , . The radial derivative is . Its cubic angular mean is
Here denotes the mean over one revolution. Removing the oscillatory cubic terms by a near-identity transformation gives this same cubic radial coefficient in the Hopf normal form. The linear radial coefficient is .