Parametric spectral submanifolds across Hopf bifurcations with applications to fluid dynamics

We investigate the persistence and regularity of spectral submanifolds (SSMs) in high-dimensional parametric dynamical systems undergoing a Hopf bifurcation. By analyzing how resonances in the linearized spectrum near bifurcation points limit the existence and smoothness of SSMs, a phenomenon that has been mostly overlooked, we show that low-order Taylor coefficients of the SSM expansion and the associated reduced dynamics persist smoothly through the bifurcation. This analysis generalizes to any local bifurcation and provides a clear estimate of the parameter ranges over which a parametric SSM model can be justified, thus illustrating how globally the model can be extended despite the presence of resonances near criticality. We demonstrate these findings on multiple examples, including a data-driven SSM approach to the lid-driven cavity flow. For that problem, we construct a parametric SSM-reduced model that accurately captures the full transition to periodic dynamics and the critical Reynolds number. These results provide a mathematical foundation for robust data- and equation-driven model reduction of fluid flows across bifurcations, enabling an accurate prediction of nonlinear dynamics across critical parameter regimes.