Bifurcation and chaos in a discrete genetic toggle switch system

A discrete genetic toggle switch system obtained by Euler method is first investigated. The conditions of existence for fold bifurcation and flip bifurcation are derived by using center manifold theorem and bifurcation theory. The numerical simulations, including bifurcation diagrams, phase portraits, and computation of Lyapunov exponents, not only show the consistence with the theoretical analysis but also exhibit the rich and complex dynamical behavior. We show the period 3 to 13 windows in different chaotic regions, period-doubling bifurcation or inverse period-doubling bifurcation from period-2 to 12 orbits leading to chaos, different kind of interior crisis and boundary crisis, intermittency behavior, chaotic set, chaotic non-attracting set, coexistence of period points with invariant cycles, and so on. The influence of the amplitude and frequency of excitable forcing on the system are also first considered by using numerical simulation. A different type of quasiperiodic orbits, jumping behaviors of quasiperiodic set from one set to another set, and the processes from quasiperiodic orbits to strange non-chaotic attractor are found.