Neural firing rate model with a steep firing rate function

In this study we justify rigorously the approximation of the steep firing rate functions with a unit step function in a two-population neural firing rate model with steep firing rate functions. We do this justification by exploiting the theory of switching dynamical systems. It has been demonstrated that switching dynamics offer a possibility of simplifying the dynamical system and getting approximations of the solution of the system for any specific choice of parameters. In this approach the phase space of the system is divided into regular and singular domains, where the limit dynamics can be written down explicitly. The advantages of this method are illustrated by a number of numerical examples for different cases of the singular domains (i.e. for black, white and transparent walls) and for specific choices of the parameters involved. General conditions have been formulated on these parameters to give black, white and transparent walls. Further, the existence and stability of regular and singular stationary points have been investigated. It has been shown that the regular stationary points (i.e. stationary points inside the regular domains) are always stable and this property is preserved for smooth and sufficiently steep activation functions. In the most technical part of the paper we have provided conditions on the existence and stability of singular stationary points (i.e. those belonging to the singular domains). For the existence results, the implicit function theorem has been used, whereas the stability of singular stationary points is addressed by applying singular perturbation analysis and the Tikhonov theorem.     

Noncompliant oligopolistic firms and marketable pollution permits: Statics and dynamics

In this paper, we consider the modeling, analysis, and computation of solutions to both static and dynamic models of multiproduct, multipollutant noncompliant oligopolistic firms who engage in a market for pollution permits. In the case of the static model, we utilize variational inequality theory for the formulation of the governing equilibrium conditions as well as the qualitative analysis of the equilibrium pattern, including sensitivity analysis. We then propose a dynamic model, using the theory of projected dynamical systems, whose set of stationary points coincides with the set of solutions to the variational inequality problem. We propose an algorithm, which is a discretization in time of the dynamic adjustment process, and provide convergence results using the stability analysis results that are also provided herein. Finally, we apply the algorithm to several numerical examples to compute the profit-maximized quantities of the oligopolistic firms' products and the quantities of emissions, along with the equilibrium allocation of licenses and their prices, as well as the possible noncompliant overflows and underflows. This is the first time that these methodologies have been utilized in conjunction to study a problem drawn from environmental policy modeling and analysis.     

Unifying theory for stability of continuous,discontinuous, and discrete-time dynamical systems

Continuous-time dynamical systems whose motions are continuous with respect to time (called continuous dynamical systems), may be viewed as special cases of continuous-time dynamical systems whose motions are not necessarily continuous with respect to time (called discontinuous dynamical systems, or DDS). We show that the classical Lyapunov stability results for continuous dynamical systems are embedded in the authors’ stability results for DDS (given in [H. Ye, A.N. Michel, L. Hou, Stability theory for hybrid dynamical systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 43 (4) (1998) 461–474]), in the following sense: if the hypotheses for a given Lyapunov stability result for continuous dynamical systems are satisfied, then the hypotheses of the corresponding stability result for DDS are also satisfied. This shows that the stability results for DDS in [H. Ye, A.N. Michel, L. Hou, Stability theory for hybrid dynamical systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 43 (4) (1998) 461–474] are much more general than was previously known, and that the quality of the DDS results therein is consistent with that of the classical Lyapunov stability results for continuous dynamical systems.By embedding discrete-time dynamical systems into a class of DDS with equivalent stability properties, we also show that when the hypotheses of the classical Lyapunov stability results for discrete-time dynamical systems are satisfied, then the hypotheses of the corresponding DDS stability results are also satisfied. This shows that the results for DDS in [H. Ye, A.N. Michel, L. Hou Stability theory for hybrid dynamical systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 43 (4) (1998) 461–474] are much more general than previously known, having connections even with discrete-time dynamical systems!Finally, we demonstrate by the means of a specific example that the stability results for DDS are less conservative than corresponding classical Lyapunov stability results for continuous dynamical systems.     

Gap Functions and Lyapunov Functions

Equilibrium problems play a central role in the study of complex and competitive systems. Many variational formulations of these problems have been presented in these years. So, variational inequalities are very useful tools for the study of equilibrium solutions and their stability. More recently a dynamical model of equilibrium problems based on projection operators was proposed. It is designated as globally projected dynamical system (GPDS). The equilibrium points of this system are the solutions to the associated variational inequality (VI) problem. A very popular approach for finding solution of these VI and for studying its stability consists in introducing the so-called "gap-functions", while stability analysis of an equilibrium point of dynamical systems can be made by means of Lyapunov functions. In this paper we show strict relationships between gap functions and Lyapunov functions.     

A geometric analysis of the Lagerstrom model problem

Lagerstrom's model problem is a classical singular perturbation problem which was introduced to illustrate the ideas and subtleties involved in the analysis of viscous flow past a solid at low Reynolds number by the method of matched asymptotic expansions. In this paper the corresponding boundary value problem is analyzed geometrically by using methods from the theory of dynamical systems, in particular invariant manifold theory. As an essential part of the dynamics takes place near a line of non-hyperbolic equilibria, a blow-up transformation is introduced to resolve these singularities. This approach leads to a constructive proof of existence and local uniqueness of solutions and to a better understanding of the singular perturbation nature of the problem. In particular, the source of the logarithmic switchback phenomenon is identified.     

同心球间流动三模类Lorenz系统的动力学行为及数值仿真

讨论了同心球间旋转流动的类Lorenz型方程组的动力学行为及其数值模拟问题,求出了该方程组平衡点,并对其稳定性进行了分析,证明了该方程组吸引子的存在性,对类Lorenz方程组的动力学行为进行了数值模拟,数值试验表明此类Lorenz型方程组存在极限环和奇怪吸引子.     

Stability of a supersonic flow past a wedge with adjoint weak neutrally stable shock wave

We study the classical problem of a supersonic stationary flow of a nonviscous nonheat-conducting gas in local thermodynamic equilibrium past an infinite plane wedge. Under the Lopatinski? condition on the shock wave (neutral stability), we prove the well-posedness of the linearized mixed problem (the main solution is a weak shock wave), obtain a representation of the classical solution, where, in this case (in contrast to the case of the uniform Lopatinski? condition—an absolutely stable shock wave), plane waves additionally appear in the representation. If the initial data have compact support, the solution reaches the given regime in infinite time.     

Automatically Discovering Relaxed Lyapunov Functions for Polynomial Dynamical Systems

The notion of Lyapunov function plays a key role in the design and verification of dynamical systems, as well as hybrid and cyber-physical systems. In this paper, to analyze the asymptotic stability of a dynamical system, we generalize standard Lyapunov functions to relaxed Lyapunov functions (RLFs), by considering higher order Lie derivatives. Furthermore, we present a method for automatically discovering polynomial RLFs for polynomial dynamical systems (PDSs). Our method is relatively complete in the sense that it is able to discover all polynomial RLFs with a given predefined template for any PDS. Therefore it can also generate all polynomial RLFs for the PDS by enumerating all polynomial templates.     

On the spectrum for the artificial compressible system

Stability of stationary solutions of the incompressible Navier–Stokes system and the corresponding artificial compressible system is considered. Both systems have the same sets of stationary solutions and the incompressible system is obtained from the artificial compressible one in the zero limit of the artificial Mach number ? which is a singular limit. It is proved that if a stationary solution of the incompressible system is asymptotically stable and the velocity field of the stationary solution satisfies an energy-type stability criterion by variational method with admissible functions being only potential flow parts of velocity fields, then it is also stable as a solution of the artificial compressible one for sufficiently small ?. The result is applied to the Taylor problem.     

Rotation number quantization effect

We study a class of dynamical systems on a torus that includes dynamical systems modeling the dynamics of the Josephson transition. For systems in this class, we introduce certain characteristics including a sequence of functions depending on the system parameters. We prove that if this sequence converges at a given point in the parameter space, then its limit is equal to the classical rotation number, and we then call this point a quantization point for the rotation number. We prove that the rotation number of such a system takes only integer values at a quantization point. Quantization areas are thus defined in the parameter space, and the problem of effectively describing them becomes an important part of characterizing the systems under study. We present graphs of the rotation number at quantization points and under conditions when it is not quantized (an example of a half-integer rotation number) and diagrams for quantization areas.     

A generalization of Vinograd's theorem for dynamical systems

The theory of dynamical systems has been expanded by the introduction of local dynamical systems [10, 4, 9] and local semidynamical systems [1]. Using integral curves of autonomous ordinary differential equations to illustrate these generalizations, we find that, roughly, the integral curves form a local dynamical system if solutions exist and are unique without requiring existence for all time, and the integral curves form a local semidynamical system if solutions exist and are unique in the positive sense but need not exist for all positive time. In addition to autonomous ordinary differential equations, the enlarged theory of dynamical systems has applications to nonautonomous ordinary differential equations, certain partial differential equations, functional differential equations, and Volterra Integral equations [9, 1, 2, 8], respectively. All of these have metric phase spaces. Since many dynamic considerations are invariant to reparameterizations, it is of interest to known when a local dynamical (or semidynamical) system can be reparameterized to yield a “global” dynamical (or semidynamical) system. For autonomous ordinary differential equations, Vinograd [7] has shown that the local dynamical system on an open subset ofRⁿ formed by integral curves is isomorphic (in the sense of Nemytskii and Stepanov) to a global dynamical system. In an extensive study of isomorphisms, Ura [12] has expanded the Gottschalk-Hedlund notion of an isomorphism and restated Vinograd's result in terms of a reparameterization. In this paper we study the problem of finding a global dynamical (or semidynamical) system which is isomorphic to a given local system. A necessary and sufficient condition is found which is then used to show that the Vinograd result holds on metric spaces.     

On the stability of rotating heavy chains

The object of this paper is two-fold. On the one hand we want to develop the duality theory for critical points which is introduced in [4]. The main result in this context is that if two critical points are in duality, and one of them is a local minimiser of its functional, then so is the other. In principle then it is possible to draw conclusions about the stability of stationary solutions of a system, not by analysing the potential energy functional, but by examining an appropriate functional which is dual to it. Our second aim is to illustrate this idea by means of the specific example of the spinning chain problem. It turns out that in this case the dual variational problem is much more tractable than the potential energy functional, and indeed the stability analysis follows at once from results in the literature, once the duality is taken into account.     

A natural order in dynamical systems based on Conley–Markov matrices

We introduce a natural order to study properties of dynamical systems, especially their invariant sets. The new concept is based on the classical Conley index theory and transition probabilities among neighborhoods of different invariant sets when the dynamical systems are perturbed by white noises. The transition probabilities can be determined by the Fokker–Planck equation and they form a matrix called a Markov matrix. In the limiting case when the random perturbation is reduced to zero, the Markov matrix recovers the information given by the Conley connection matrix. The Markov matrix also produces a natural order from the least to the most stable invariant sets for general dynamical systems. In particular, it gives the order among the local extreme points if the dynamical system is a gradient-like flow of an energy functional. Consequently, the natural order can be used to determine the global minima for gradient-like systems. Some numerical examples are given to illustrate the Markov matrix and its properties.     

Asymptotic and Lyapunov stability of constrained and Poisson equilibria

This paper includes results centered around three topics, all of them related with the nonlinear stability of equilibria in constrained dynamical systems. First, we prove an energy-Casimir type sufficient condition for stability that uses functions that are not necessarily conserved by the flow and that takes into account the asymptotically stable behavior that may occur in certain constrained systems, such as Poisson and Leibniz dynamical systems. Second, this method is specifically adapted to Poisson systems obtained via a reduction procedure and we show in examples that the kind of stability that we propose is appropriate when dealing with the stability of the equilibria of some constrained mechanical systems. Finally, we discuss two situations in which the use of continuous Casimir functions in stability studies is equivalent to the topological stability methods introduced by Patrick et al. (Arch. Rational Mech. Anal., 2004, preprint arXiv:math.DS/0201239v1, to appear).     

The qualitative analysis of a class of planar Filippov systems

We use the theory of differential inclusions, Filippov transformations and some appropriate Poincaré maps to discuss the special case of two-dimensional discontinuous piecewise linear differential systems with two zones. This analysis applies to uniqueness and non-uniqueness for the initial value problem, stability of stationary points, sliding motion solutions, number of closed trajectories, existence of heteroclinic trajectories connecting two saddle points forming a heteroclinic cycle and existence of the homoclinic trajectory     

Nonautonomous Hamiltonian quantum systems,operator equations,and representations of the Bender–Dunne Weyl-ordered basis under time-dependent canonical transformations

We solve the problem of integrating operator equations for the dynamics of nonautonomous quantum systems by using time-dependent canonical transformations. The studied operator equations essentially reproduce the classical integrability conditions at the quantum level in the basic cases of one-dimensional nonautonomous dynamical systems. We seek solutions in the form of operator series in the Bender–Dunne basis of pseudodifferential operators. Together with this problem, we consider quantum canonical transformations. The minimal solution of the operator equation in the representation of the basis at a fixed time corresponds to the lowest-order contribution of the solution obtained as a result of applying a canonical linear transformation to the basis elements.     

D-Gap Functions for Nonsmooth Variational Inequality Problems

We study the Clarke generalized gradient of the D-gap functions for the variational inequality problem (VIP) defined by a locally Lipschitz, but not necessarily differentiable, function in an Euclidean space. Using these results, we study the relationship between minimizing sequences and stationary sequences of the D-gap function, regardless of the existence of solutions of (VIP).     

Differential equations without uniqueness and classical topological dynamics

In this paper we present a point of view which allows one to interpret the solutions of a non-autonomous differential equation as a classical dynamical system, without assuming uniqueness of solutions of the initial value problem. In addition we are able to construct a global flow without assuming the global existence of solutions of the given differential equations. This point of view seems appropriate in the sense that many applications of the results of classical topological dynamics to the study of the solutions of differential equations can now be performed, in a straight-forward manner, without the uniqueness assumption. We shall illustrate this claim with one important application concerning the existence of periodic or almost periodic solutions.     

Exponentially Stable Stationary Solutions for Stochastic Evolution Equations and Their Perturbation

We consider the exponential stability of stochastic evolution equations with Lipschitz continuous non-linearities when zero is not a solution for these equations. We prove the existence of a non-trivial stationary solution which is exponentially stable, where the stationary solution is generated by the composition of a random variable and the Wiener shift. We also construct stationary solutions with the stronger property of attracting bounded sets uniformly. The existence of these stationary solutions follows from the theory of random dynamical systems and their attractors. In addition, we prove some perturbation results and formulate conditions for the existence of stationary solutions for semilinear stochastic partial differential equations with Lipschitz continuous non-linearities.