We present a detailed investigation into the occurrence of complex patterns in the
memristive Murali–Lakshmanan–Chua (MLC) circuit system. The nonsmooth system
is divided into fast and slow subsystems by assuming a cosinusoidal function as a
slow variable. The determination of the region of bifurcation space in the fast
subsystem (the FS) is associated with nonsmooth boundaries and switching
manifolds. The transition through the switching boundaries may give rise to
complicated dynamics including coexistence of bilateral equilibrium states and
jumping behaviors constituting the relaxation-type oscillation cycles. Combined with
the generalized Jacobian matrix and Clarke derivative, discontinuous bifurcations of
the fast subsystem at the nonsmooth boundaries are investigated. Two types of
oscillation modes are obtained, and their generating mechanism is discussed. It
is revealed that not only the equilibrium dynamics of the fast subsystem
but also discontinuous bifurcations at switching boundaries have a deep
impact on the whole system dynamic, leading to the sudden transition on two
switching boundaries. Finally, performance of this nonlinear nonsmooth
MLC circuit system is well verified by numerical simulations and analytical
studies.