Analytic weak-stable manifolds in unfoldings of saddle-nodes

Any attracting, hyperbolic and proper node of a two-dimensional analytic vector-field has a unique strong-stable manifold. This manifold is analytic. The corresponding weak-stable manifolds are, on the other hand, not unique, but in the nonresonant case there is a unique weak-stable manifold that is analytic. As the system approaches a saddle-node (under parameter variation), a sequence of resonances (of increasing order) occur. In this paper, we give a detailed description of the analytic weak-stable manifolds during this process. In particular, we relate a ‘flapping-mechanism’, corresponding to a dramatic change of the position of the analytic weak-stable manifold as the parameter passes through the infinitely many resonances, to the lack of analyticity of the centre manifold at the saddle-node. Our work is motivated and inspired by the work of Merle, Raphaël, Rodnianski, and Szeftel, where this flapping mechanism is the crucial ingredient in the construction of C^∞-smooth self-similar solutions of the compressible Euler equations.