Threefold phase-locked equilibria ($R_{\pm }^2=\mu +\frac{1}{2}\pm \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{1+4\mu -4{\omega }^2}$)

The canonical three-to-one spatially forced amplitude equation has nonzero equilibrium points $C=R{e}^{i\theta }$ satisfying $\cos 3\theta =(R^2-\mu )/R$ and $\sin 3\theta =-\omega /R$. Thus $(R^2-\mu {)}^2+{\omega }^2=R^2$. Each positive amplitude has three phases separated by $2\pi /3$: two amplitude branches normally mean six complex equilibrium points. For $\mu >{\omega }^2-1/4$ the larger branch is asymptotically stable and the smaller consists of saddle equilibria, except that its zero-amplitude root at $(\mu ,\omega )=(0,0)$ is not a nonzero equilibrium point. Equality gives a saddle-node bifurcation. This phase locking breaks continuous translation symmetry down to threefold symmetry.