Can subharmonics in a system be also termed as bifurcation?

[student-engineer]

I think that the existence of subharmonics is also bifurcation.Is that true

 

[f95toli]

No, I am not even sure why you would think that.
Any non-linear system will have subharmonics; but only certain systems (say a Duffing oscillator) will exhibit bifurcations.
It is obviously true that a bifurcating system will have lots of subharmonics; the the reverse is not true.

 

[Baluncore]

I think that the existence of subharmonics is also bifurcation.Is that true

You will have to define what you consider to be a bifurcation, the meaning of the term sub-harmonic and what you will consider to be the fundamental or driving function.

Higher harmonics, with frequencies, f * n, are generated by distortion of a waveform due to a non-linearity. Different types of distortion generate odd or even harmonics.

Sub-harmonics with frequencies, f/n, that are lower than the fundamental driving function are generated when there is energy or information storage. For example, a staircase generator, a digital divider or a for-next loop in software can all generate integer sub-harmonics at lower frequencies than the fundamental clock.

Bifurcations can double or halve the period, so they can halve or double the frequency. The entry to chaos is characterised by period doubling which is frequency halving, may be that is sub-harmonic generation. Stability is reached by period halving which is frequency doubling, that may be super-harmonic generation.

A bifurcation is a splitting into two, which seems to qualify some bifurcations as even sub-harmonics. Can bifurcations ever generate odd sub-harmonics?

 

[student-engineer]

If the waveform repeats at the multiples of the period T, then such a waveform is subharmonic. This is according to page 1 of the research paper http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/124574/
Bifurcation in system occurs when the system deviates from its period-1 regime of operation and starts functioning at period-n. This is according to page 19, section 1.1.4 of the book http://dlx.b-ok.org/genesis/165000/...lex_behavior_of_switching_power(b-ok.org).pdf
From this information, I was concluding that period-n subharmonic operation of the system is also bifurcation
From the information given on the page https://books.google.com.pk/books?i... between subharmonics and bifurcation&f=false
I was concluding the same