Bifurcation from a homoclinic orbit in partial functional differential equations

Abstract

We consider a family of partial functional differential equations which has a homoclinic orbit asymptotic to an isolated equilibrium point at a critical value of the parameter. Under some technical assumptions, we show that a unique stable periodic orbit bifurcates from the homoclinic orbit. Our approach follows the ideas of Šil'nikov for ordinary differential equations and of Chow and Deng for semilinear parabolic equations and retarded functional differential equations.