Equilibrium-torus bifurcation in nonsmooth systems

Considering a set of two coupled nonautonomous differential equations with discontinuous right-hand sides describing the behavior of a DC/DC power converter, we discuss a border-collision bifurcation that can lead to the birth of a two-dimensional invariant torus from a stable node equilibrium point.

We obtain the chart of dynamic modes and show that there is a region of parameter space in which the system has a single stable node equilibrium point. Under variation of the parameters, this equilibrium may disappear as it collides with a discontinuity boundary between two smooth regions in the phase space.

The disappearance of the equilibrium point is accompanied by the soft appearance of an unstable focus period-1 orbit surrounded by a resonant or ergodic torus. Detailed numerical calculations are supported by a theoretical investigation of the normal form map that represents the piecewise linear approximation to our system in the neighbourhood of the border.

We determine the functional relationships between the parameters of the normal form map and the actual system and illustrate how the normal form theory can predict the bifurcation behaviour along the border-collision equilibrium-torus bifurcation curve.