Copyright © 2011 Toichiro Asada and Panagiotis Markellos. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Complex dynamical features are explored in a discrete interregional macrodynamic model proposed by Asada et al., using numerical methods. The model is five-dimensional with four parameters. The results demonstrate patterns of dynamical behaviour, such as bifurcation processes and coexistence of attractors, generated by high-dimensional discrete systems. In three cases of two-dimensional parameter subspaces the stability of equilibrium region is determined and its boundaries, the flip and Neimark-Hopf bifurcation curves, are identified by means of necessary coefficient criteria. In the first case closed invariant curves (CICs) are found to occur through 5D-crater-type bifurcations, and for certain ranges of parameter values a stable equilibrium coexists with an unstable CIC associated with the subcritical bifurcation, as well as with an outer stable CIC. A remarkable feature of the second case is the coexistence of two attracting CICs outside the stability region. In both these cases the related hysteresis effects are illustrated by numerical simulations. In the third case a remarkable feature is the apparent unfolding of an attracting CIC before it evolves to a chaotic attractor. Examples of CICs and chaotic attractors are given in subspaces of phase space.