Bifurcations and stability of families of diffeomorphisms

Abstract

We consider one parameter families or arcs of diffeomorphisms. For families starting with Morse-Smale diffeomorphisms we characterize various types of (structural) stability at or near the first bifurcation point. We also give a complete description of the stable arcs of diffeomorphisms whose limit sets consist of finitely many orbits. Universal models for the local unfoldings of the bifurcating periodic orbits (especially saddle-nodes) are established, as well as several results on the global dynamical structure of the bifurcating diffeomorphisms. Moduli of stability related to saddle-connections are introduced.