Abstract
This paper reports the finding of unstable limit cycles and singular attractors in a two-dimensional dynamical system consisting of an inductor and a bistable bi-local active memristor. Inspired by the idea of nested intervals theorem, a new programmable scheme for finding unstable limit cycles is proposed, and its feasibility is verified by numerical simulations. The unstable limit cycles and their evolution laws in the memristor-based dynamic system are found from two subcritical Hopf bifurcation domains, which are subdomains of twin local activity domains of the memristor. Coexisting singular attractors are discovered in the twin local activity domains, apart from the two corresponding subcritical Hopf bifurcation domains. Of particular interest is the coexistence of a singular attractor and a period-2 or period-3 attractor, observed in numerical simulations.