Bifurcations in the dynamics of a dipolar spheroid in a shear flow subjected to an external field

The dynamical phase behavior of a spheroid with a magnetic dipole rotating in a shear flow and external field is investigated theoretically. Depending on the ratio of the torques due to the shear flow, a sequence of bifurcations leads to a rich complexity in the phase portraits in orientation space. We also find that the dynamics of an ideal thin rod could be very different from that of a high aspect ratio spheroid.