Bifurcations in Continuous Piecewise Linear Differential Systems

Enrique Ponce was born in the very downtown of Seville, at his grandparent’s home, on the afternoon of July’s first Saturday, 1955. From his childhood, he is renowned for his ability to repair (sometimes, failing to repair) any mechanical or electrical device. After obtaining an electrical engineering degree, his interests turned into applied mathematics, an area in which he has become a full professor.Javier Ros was born in Almería in 1966. His main hobby is chess, where after some successes in his youth, he switched to correspondence chess where he qualified to play in the 33rd ICCF World Championship Final. His interest in mathematics led him, after a degree in engineering, to do his PhD in the area of applied mathematics, where he is currently an associate professor.Elísabet Vela was born in Seville in 1982. Ever since she was little, she loved playing at being a teacher. From her great interest in teaching, added to her mathematical skills, it was easy to decide to study mathematics. After completing her doctoral thesis in applied mathematics she is currently an assistant professor in this subject.

• - Part I Introduction. - 1. From Linear to Piecewise Linear Differential Systems. - 2. Preliminary Results. - Part II Planar Piecewise Linear Differential Systems. - 3. Analysis of Planar Continuous Systems with Two Zones. - 4. First Results for Planar Continuous Systems with Three Zones. - 5. Boundary Equilibrium Bifurcations and Limit Cycles. - 6. An Algebraically Computable Bifurcation in Continuous Piecewise Linear Nodal Oscillators. - 7. The Focus-Saddle Boundary Bifurcation. - Part III Three-Dimensional Piecewise Linear Differential Systems. - 8. The Focus-Center Limit Cycle Bifurcation in 3D Continuous Piecewise Linear Systems with Two Zones. - 9. The FCLC Bifurcation in 3D Symmetric Continuous Piecewise Linear Systems. - 10. The Piecewise Linear Analogue of Hopf-pitchfork Bifurcation. - 11. Afterword.