Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-and-computational-biology-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-1/5/g/solution

Suppose and set . Substitution of the positive equilibrium into the Jacobian matrix gives
Part (b) showed whenever . In particular,
gives , whereas
gives . The latter already violates the Jury stability criterion condition . More directly, the product of the two eigenvalues is greater than one, so at least one has modulus greater than one. Therefore the positive equilibrium is unstable. This is the instability of the Nicholson-Bailey equilibrium; parasitoid feedback in this simple model does not stabilize coexistence.

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