Slow-Fast Dynamics of a Coupled Oscillator with Periodic Excitation

We study the influence of the coexisting steady states in high-dimensional systems on the dynamical evolution of the vector field when a slow-varying periodic excitation is introduced. The model under consideration is a coupled system of Bonhöffer–van der Pol (BVP) equations with a slow-varying periodic excitation. We apply the modified slow–fast analysis method to perform a detailed study on all the equilibrium branches and their bifurcations of the generalized autonomous system. According to different dynamical behaviors, we explore the dynamical evolution of existing attractors, which reveals the coexistence of a quasi-periodic attractor with diverse types of bursting attractors. Further investigation shows that the coexisting steady states may cause spiking oscillations to behave in combination of a 2D torus and a limit cycle. We also identify a period-2 cycle bursting attractor as well as a quasi-periodic attractor according to the period-2 limit cycle.