This section introduces bifurcations in two-dimensional systems. It turns out that nothing really new happens in 2D. All the action is confined to a one-dimensional subspace along which the bifurcations occur while in the extra dimensions the flow is either simple attraction or repulsion. The situation in which two complex conjugate eigenvalues simultaneously cross the imaginary axis is a Hopf bifurcation, of which they are supercritical cases(decay slows down and eventually becomes growth), subcritical cases (when an unstable cycle shrinks and engulfs the origin, and degenerate cases (where the sign of the parameter affects the stability of the fixed point).
Challenges
I am a little unclear on how to determine which type of bifurcation occurs after determining that a system has a Hopf bifurcation.
Relfections
Bifurcations made a lot of sense in one-dimension, so I'm confident about studying them in 2-D.