Solutions 2

3.1.2
The graph of the function y = coshx is shown below on the right, with dotted lines
indicating the values of r. It’s then clear that x moves to the right when y is below r and
vice versa. The vector fields are sketched as follows

Vector Fields Graph of y=cosh(x)

r=4 10

r=1

r = 0.5 8

A saddle-node bifurcation occurs at r = 1.

x stable

4 r=4

2
r

r=1
r = 0.5
0

unstable
−2 0 2
−3 ≤ x ≤ 3

3.2.4
First we plot the graph of ẋ versus x for various r and get the following picture:
1
2

1.5

1
−0.7

0.5

0.5

−0.5

−1

1.5

−1.5
−1 −0.5 0 0.5

It’s then clear that the vector fields can be described qualitatively as follows:
Vector Fields

r<=0

0<r<1

r=1

r>1

Now we can draw the bifurcation diagram

stable

unstable
stable
r

unstable

3.3.2
Part a) Assume that Ṗ ≈ 0, Ḋ ≈ 0 then, to first order, ED = P and λ + 1 − λEP = D.
(λ+1)E
Substitute the D = EP into the second equation we will have P = 1+λE 2 . Since Ė =
λκ(1−E 2 )E
κ(P − E), the evolution equation of E is thus E = 1+λE 2
.
Part b) The fixed points of E are E ∗ = 0 and E ∗ = 1.
Part c) Bifurcation diagram.
 3

Bifurcation Diagram
*
E

unstable

stable λ

3.4.2
Fixed points of x and r are related by r = sinhx
x , its graph shows that the critical value
is r = 1. There are two qualitatively different vector fields:
Vector Fields

r<1

r>1

It’s readily seen that 0 changes from stable to unstable after r passes critical value 1 and
two more stable fixed points are created. This is a pitchfork bifurcation, it’s supercritical.
Bifurcation Diagram
x*

unstable

stable r

3.4.6
We start by solving equation rx = x/(1 + x), 0 is always a solution and another solution
is given by x = 1/r − 1 as long as r is nonzero. The critical values for r are 0 and 1,
representing the cases in which there is only one fixed point. The vector fields can be
sketched as follows
4

Vector Fields

r<0

r=0

0<r<1

r=1

r>1

At r = 1 two fixed points changed their types, this is a transcritical bifurcation.

unstable

stable r

3.4.11
Part a) Fixed points are integral multiples of π.
Vector Field

−2π −π 0 π 2π

Part b) When r > 1, the absolute value of x is always greater than the absolute value of
sin x unless x = 0, which is the only fixed point. The derivative of (rx − sin x) is r − 1 at
point x = 0, since it’s positive x = 0 is unstable.
Vector Field

Part c) As r decreases, the graph of y = rx has more intersections with the graph of
y = sin x, i.e. more fixed points are created. At an intersection point x = c, if (y = sin x)
crosses (y = rx) from the below, then x = c is unstable, and vice versa. When (y = rx)
touches (y = sin x) at a new point, a bifurcation occurs, and after the bifurcation the smaller
fixed point will be unstable.
 5

Notice that 0 is always a fixed point and it changes from unstable to stable as r passes 1.
We conclude that when r decreases from ∞ to 0, there is a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation
at r = 1 and saddle-node bifurcations when 0 < r < 1.
Part d) When r  1, y = rx touches y = sin x at approximately the peaks of its graph,
i.e. x = π2 + 2kπ, where k is a positive integer. Therefore bifurcations occur near r = 4k+1
2π
.
Part e) When r further decreases, two loci of fixed points will merge and vanish, which
is clear if you stare the figure in part c for a while. These are also saddle-node bifurcations,
shown below.