Past exam of the elasticity and plasticity course of the University of Oxford / 2008 / 3 / d / Solution

Near the first eigenvalue, load detuning supplies a term $ϵ{\lambda }_1\theta$, while the first nonlinearity in $\sin \theta =\theta -{\theta }^3/6+\cdots$ is cubic. Balancing them gives ${\theta }^2=O(ϵ)$, so $\boxed{\theta =O(\sqrt{ϵ})}$.

Put $\theta =\sqrt{ϵ}[A_0\sin \pi \xi +ϵ{\Theta }_1+\cdots ]$. At order ${ϵ}^{3/2}$,The operator has kernel $\sin \pi \xi$, so Fredholm solvability requires its forcing to be orthogonal to that function. Since $\int {\sin }^2\pi \xi =1/2$ and $\int {\sin }^4\pi \xi =3/8$,When this holds the nonresonant forcing is $-{\pi }^2{A}_0^3\sin 3\pi \xi /24$; for instance ${\Theta }_1=A_0^3\sin 3\pi \xi /192$ is a solution after absorbing its arbitrary first-mode component into the amplitude convention.

The branches are $\boxed{A_0=0\text{ for all }{\lambda }_1,A_0=\pm \sqrt{8{\lambda }_1}\text{ for }{\lambda }_1\ge 0}$. This is a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation. The leading reduced energy is proportional to $A_0^4-16{\lambda }_1{A}_0^2$: the nonzero branches are minima for ${\lambda }_1>0$, while zero loses minimality on that side. At the origin the quartic term still stabilizes the critical state.