Noose Structure and Bifurcations of Periodic Orbits in Reversible Three-Dimensional Piecewise Linear Differential Systems

The main goal of this work is to describe the periodic behavior of a class of three-dimensional reversible piecewise linear continuous systems. More concretely, we study an interesting structure called the noose bifurcation that was previously detected by Kent and Elgin in the Michelson system. We numerically obtain the curves of periodic orbits that appear from the bifurcations at the noose curve, where other phenomena related to different types of tangencies with the separation plane arise. Besides that, we show that some of these curves of periodic orbits wiggle around global connections when the period increases. The complete structure of periodic orbits, including the stability and bifurcations, coincides with the one observed in the Michelson system. However, we also point out the relevance of the crossing tangency and the small loop that emerges from it in the existence of the noose bifurcation.