Abstract

Motivated by problems in equivariant dynamics and connection selection in heteroclinic networks, Ashwin and Field investigated the product of planar dynamics where one at least of the factors was a planar homoclinic attractor. However, they were only able to obtain partial results in the case of a product of two planar homoclinic attractors. We give general results for the product of planar homoclinic and heteroclinic attractors. We show that the likely limit set of the basin of attraction of the product of two planar heteroclinic attractors is always the unique one-dimensional heteroclinic network which covers the heteroclinic attractors in the factors. The method we use is general and likely to apply to products of higher dimensional heteroclinic attractors as well as to situations where the product structure is broken but the cycles are preserved.

email: mikefield@gmail.com

Professor Mike Field
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106