Existence of homoclinic orbits and heteroclinic cycle in a class of three-dimensional piecewise linear systems with three switching manifolds

In this article, we construct a kind of three-dimensional piecewise linear (PWL) system with three switching manifolds and obtain four theorems with regard to the existence of a homoclinic orbit and a heteroclinic cycle in this class of PWL system. The first theorem studies the existence of a heteroclinic cycle connecting two saddle-foci. The existence of a homoclinic orbit connecting one saddle-focus is investigated in the second theorem, and the third theorem examines the existence of a homoclinic orbit connecting another saddle-focus. The last one proves the coexistence of the heteroclinic cycle and two homoclinic orbits for the same parameters. Numerical simulations are given as example…