In
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, particularly in
dynamical systems
In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models ...
, a bifurcation diagram shows the values visited or approached asymptotically (
fixed points,
periodic orbits, or
chaotic attractors) of a system as a function of a
bifurcation parameter in the system. It is usual to represent stable values with a solid line and unstable values with a dotted line, although often the unstable points are omitted. Bifurcation diagrams enable the visualization of
bifurcation theory
Bifurcation theory is the Mathematics, mathematical study of changes in the qualitative or topological structure of a given family of curves, such as the integral curves of a family of vector fields, and the solutions of a family of differential e ...
. In the context of discrete-time dynamical systems, the diagram is also called orbit diagram.
Logistic map
An example is the bifurcation diagram of the
logistic map:
The bifurcation parameter ''r'' is shown on the horizontal axis of the plot and the vertical axis shows the set of values of the
logistic function
A logistic function or logistic curve is a common S-shaped curve ( sigmoid curve) with the equation
f(x) = \frac
where
The logistic function has domain the real numbers, the limit as x \to -\infty is 0, and the limit as x \to +\infty is L.
...
visited asymptotically from almost all initial conditions.
The bifurcation diagram shows the forking of the periods of stable orbits from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 etc. Each of these bifurcation points is a
period-doubling bifurcation.
The ratio of the lengths of successive intervals between values of ''r'' for which bifurcation occurs
converges to the
first Feigenbaum constant.
The diagram also shows period doublings from 3 to 6 to 12 etc., from 5 to 10 to 20 etc., and so forth.
Symmetry breaking in bifurcation sets
In a dynamical system such as
which is
structurally stable when
, if a bifurcation diagram is plotted, treating
as the bifurcation parameter, but for different values of
, the case
is the symmetric pitchfork bifurcation. When
, we say we have a pitchfork with ''broken symmetry.'' This is illustrated in the animation on the right.
Applications
Consider a system of
differential equations that describes some physical quantity, that for concreteness could represent one of three examples: 1. the position and velocity of an undamped and frictionless pendulum, 2. a neuron's membrane potential over time, and 3. the average concentration of a virus in a patient's bloodstream. The differential equations for these examples include *parameters* that may affect the output of the equations. Changing the pendulum's length will affect its oscillation frequency, changing the magnitude of injected current into a neuron may transition the membrane potential from resting to spiking, and the long-term viral load in the bloodstream may decrease with carefully timed treatments.
In general, researchers may seek to quantify how the long-term (asymptotic) behavior of a system of differential equations changes if a parameter is changed. In the
dynamical systems
In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models ...
branch of mathematics, a bifurcation diagram quantifies these changes by showing how fixed points,
periodic orbits, or
chaotic attractors of a system change as a function of
bifurcation parameter. Bifurcation diagrams are used to visualize these changes.
See also
*
Bifurcation memory
*
Chaos theory
Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of Scientific method, scientific study and branch of mathematics. It focuses on underlying patterns and Deterministic system, deterministic Scientific law, laws of dynamical systems that are highly sens ...
*
Skeleton of bifurcation diagram
*
Feigenbaum constants
*
Sharkovskii's theorem
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
The Logistic Map and Chaosby Elmer G. Wiens, egwald.ca
*
Wikiversity: Discrete-time dynamical system orbit diagram
Chaos theory
Bifurcation theory
de:Bifurkationsdiagramm
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