Slow-fast systems with an equilibrium near the folded slow manifold

Abstract: We study a slow-fast system with two slow and one fast variables. We assume that the slow manifold of the system possesses a fold and there is an equilibrium of the system in a small neighbourhood of the fold. We derive a normal form for the system in a neighbourhood of the pair "equilibrium-fold" and study the dynamics of the normal form. In particular, as the ratio of two time scales tends to zero we obtain an asymptotic formula for the Poincar\'e map and calculate the parameter values for the first period-doubling bifurcation. The theory is applied to a generalization of the FitzHugh-Nagumo system.