Noise and O(1) amplitude effects on heteroclinic cycles

The dynamics of structurally stable heteroclinic cycles connecting fixed points with one-dimensional unstable manifolds under the influence of noise is analyzed. Fokker-Planck equations for the evolution of the probability distribution of trajectories near heteroclinic cycles are solved. The influence of the magnitude of the stable and unstable eigenvalues at the fixed points and of the amplitude of the added noise on the location and shape of the probability distribution is determined. As a consequence, the jumping of solution trajectories in and out of invariant subspaces of the deterministic system can be explained. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1054-1500(99)01602-X].