Mode competition of rotating waves in reflection-symmetric Taylor–Couette flow

We report on the results of a combined experimental and numerical study on mode interactions of rotating waves in Taylor–Couette flow. Our work shows that rotating waves which originate at a Hopf bifurcation from the steady axisymmetric Taylor vortex flow interact with this axisymmetric flow in a codimension-two fold-Hopf bifurcation. This interaction gives rise to an (unstable) low-frequency modulated wave via a subcritical Neimark–Sacker bifurcation from the rotating wave. At higher Reynolds numbers, a complicated mode interation between stable modulated waves originating at a different Neimark–Sacker bifurcation and a pair of symmetrically related rotating waves that originate at a cyclic pitchfork bifurcation is found to organize complex Z₂ -symmetry breaking of rotating waves via global bifurcations. In addition to symmetry breaking of rotating waves via a (local) cyclic pitchfork bifurcation, we found symmetry breaking of modulated waves via a saddle-node-infinite-period (SNIP) global bifurcation. Tracing these local and global bifurcation curves in Reynolds number/aspect ratio parameter space toward their apparant merging point, unexpected complexity arises in the bifurcation structure involving non-symmetric two-tori undergoing saddle-loop homoclinic bifurcations. The close agreement between the numerics and the experiment is indicative of the robustness of the observed complex dynamics.