Analysis of period-doubling bifurcation in double-well stochastic Duffing system via Laguerre polynomial approximation

The Laguerre polynomial approximation method is applied to study the stochastic period-doubling bifurcation of a double-well stochastic Duffing system with a random parameter of exponential probability density function subjected to a harmonic excitation. First, the stochastic Duffing system is reduced into its equivalent deterministic one, solvable by suitable numerical methods. Then nonlinear dynamical behavior about stochastic period-doubling bifurcation can be fully explored. Numerical simulations show that similar to the conventional period-doubling phenomenon in the deterministic Duffing system, stochastic period-doubling bifurcation may also occur in the stochastic Duffing system, but with its own stochastic modifications. Also, unlike the deterministic case, in the stochastic case the intensity of the random parameter should also be taken as a new bifurcation parameter in addition to the conventional bifurcation parameters, i.e. the amplitude and the frequency of harmonic excitation.