GLOBAL EXISTENCE OF PERIODIC SOLUTIONS IN THE LINEARLY COUPLED MACKEY-GLASS SYSTEM

The dynamics of a linearly coupled Mackey-Glass system with delay are investigated. Based on the distribution of eigenvalues, we prove that a sequence of Hopf bifurcation occurs at the positive equilibrium as the delay increases and obtain the bifurcation set in the parameter plane. The explicit algorithm for determining the direction of Hopf bifurcation and the stability of the bifurcating periodic solutions are derived, using the theories of normal form and center manifold. The global existence of periodic solutions is established using a global Hopf bifurcation result due to Wu [1998] and a Bendixson's criterion for higher dimensional ordinary differential equations due to [Li & Muldowney, 1993].