A representative model of a return map near homoclinic bifurcation is studied. This model is the so-called fattened Arnold map, a diffeomorphism of the annulus. The dynamics is extremely rich, involving periodicity, quasiperiodicity and chaos.

The method of study is a mixture of analytic perturbation theory, numerical continuation, iteration to an attractor and experiments, in which the guesses are inspired by the theory. In turn the results lead to fine-tuning of the theory. This approach is a natural paradigm for the study of complicated dynamical systems.

By following generic bifurcations, both local and homoclinic, various routes to chaos and strange attractors are detected. Here, particularly, the `large' strange attractors which wind around the annulus are of interest. Furthermore, a global phenomenon regarding Arnold tongues is important. This concerns the accumulation of tongues on lines of homoclinic bifurcation. This phenomenon sheds some new light on the occurrence of infinitely many sinks in certain cases, as predicted by the theory.