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    Singular Behavior of Observables at Hopf Bifurcations

    Benedikt Remlein* and Massimiliano Esposito†

    • Complex Systems and Statistical Mechanics, Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, 30 Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    • *Contact author: benedikt.remlein@uni.lu
    • †Contact author: massimiliano.esposito@uni.lu

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 177101 – Published 19 October, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/865m-cxxg

    Abstract

    Hopf bifurcations are a universal route to self-sustained oscillations in driven systems. Despite the absence of any singular stationary state, we show that time-averaged observables generically exhibit singularities at the onset of oscillations. The origin of this behavior is geometric: phase averaging over the emergent periodic attractor eliminates odd powers of the oscillation amplitude, while the squared amplitude varies smoothly with the distance from the bifurcation. Consequently, the excess of a time-averaged observable admits an integer-power expansion; observables remain finite but display discontinuities in finite-order derivatives. This yields an Ehrenfest-like hierarchy of Hopf singularities, in which the first nonanalytic derivative is determined by the lowest-order coupling between the observable and the limit-cycle waveform that survives phase averaging. The time averages of generic observables therefore exhibit kink singularities, while symmetry or geometric cancellations can suppress lower-order couplings and shift nonanalyticity to higher derivatives. We demonstrate this mechanism in chemical, electronic, and climate oscillators. Our results identify supercritical Hopf bifurcations as a universal mechanism for nonanalytic observable behavior, where singular yet nondiverging features emerge without any underlying singular stationary state.

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