Birth of bilayered torus and torus breakdown in a piecewise-smooth dynamical system

Border-collision bifurcations arise when the periodic trajectory of a piecewise-smooth system under variation of a parameter crosses into a region with different dynamics. Considering a three-dimensional map describing the behavior of a DC/DC power converter, the Letter discusses a new type of border-collision bifurcation that leads to the birth of a "bilayered torus". This torus consists of the union of two saddle cycles, their unstable manifolds, and a stable focus cycle. When changing the parameters, the bilayered torus transforms through a border-collision bifurcation into a resonance torus containing the stable cycle and a saddle. The Letter also presents scenarios for torus destruction through homoclinic and heteroclinic tangencies. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.