Bifurcations between streaming, traveling waves, and beating

Characterize the bifurcation from stable streaming to traveling waves and the subsequent breakdown of traveling waves into beating in the Twister model of cytoplasmic streaming.

Background

The simulations place coherent traveling waves between stable streaming and a beating regime in which microtubule defects become dislodged or proliferate and coherent waves are lost. The transition mechanisms are observed numerically but are not mathematically or dynamically characterized.

A detailed bifurcation analysis could determine how defect structure, wave amplitude, coherence, and transport properties change across the boundaries between these regimes.