Connecting a direct and a Galerkin approach to slow manifolds in infinite dimensions

In this paper, we study slow manifolds for infinite-dimensional evolution equations. We compare two approaches: an abstract evolution equation framework and a finite-dimensional spectral Galerkin approximation. We prove that the slow manifolds constructed within each approach are asymptotically close under suitable conditions. The proof is based upon Lyapunov-Perron methods and a comparison of the local graphs for the slow manifolds in scales of Banach spaces. In summary, our main result allows us to change between different characterizations of slow invariant manifolds, depending upon the technical challenges posed by particular fast-slow systems.

A Surface of Heteroclinic Connections Between Two Saddle Slow Manifolds in the Olsen Model

The Olsen model for the biochemical peroxidase-oxidase reaction has a parameter regime where one of its four variables evolves much slower than the other three. It is characterized by the existence of periodic orbits along which a large oscillation is followed by many much smaller oscillations before the process repeats. We are concerned here with a crucial ingredient for such mixed-mode oscillations (MMOs) in the Olsen model: a surface of connecting orbits that is followed closely by the MMO periodic orbit during its global, large-amplitude transition back to another onset of small oscillations. Importantly, orbits on this surface connect two one-dimensional saddle slow manifolds, which exist near curves of equilibria of the limit where the slow variable is frozen and acts as a parameter of the so-called fast subsystem. We present a numerical method, based on formulating suitable boundary value problems, to compute such a surface of connecting orbits. It involves a number of steps to compute the slow manifolds, certain submanifolds of their stable and unstable manifolds and, finally, a first connecting orbit that is then used to sweep out the surface by continuation. If it exists, such a surface of connecting orbits between two one-dimensional saddle slow manifolds is robust under parameter variations. We compute and visualize it in the Olsen model and show how this surface organizes the global return mechanism of MMO periodic orbits from the end of small oscillations back to a region of phase space where they start again.

Slow manifolds for dynamical systems with non-Gaussian stable Lévy noise

This work is concerned with the dynamics of a class of slow–fast stochastic dynamical systems driven by non-Gaussian stable Lévy noise with a scale parameter. Slow manifolds with exponentially tracking property are constructed, and then we eliminate the fast variables to reduce the dimensions of these stochastic dynamical systems. It is shown that as the scale parameter tends to zero, the slow manifolds converge to critical manifolds in distribution, which helps to investigate long time dynamics. The approximations of slow manifolds with error estimate in distribution are also established. Furthermore, we corroborate these results by three examples from biological sciences.