We study equilibrium states and bifurcations of periodic solutions from the equilibrium state of the Ikeda delay-differential equation well known in nonlinear optics. This equation was proposed as a mathematical model of a passive optical resonator in a nonlinear environment. The equation, written in a characteristic time scale, contains a small parameter at the derivative, which makes it singular. It is shown that the behavior of solutions of the equation with initial conditions from the fixed neighborhood of the equilibrium state in the phase space of the equation is described by a countable system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. This system of equations has a minimal structure and is called the normal form of the equation in the neighborhood of the equilibrium state. The system of equations allows us to pick out one "fast" and a countable number of "slow" variables and apply the averaging method to the system obtained. It is shown that the equilibrium states of a system of averaged equations with "slow" variables correspond to periodic solutions of the same type of stability. The possibility of simultaneous bifurcation of a large number of stable periodic solutions(multistability bifurcation) is shown. With further increase in the bifurcation parameter each of the periodic solutions becomes a chaotic attractor through a series of period-doubling bifurcations. Thus, the behavior of the solutions of the Ikeda equation is characterized by chaotic multistability.

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