Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-topics-in-applied-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2010/b/4/iii/solution
Past exam of the topics in applied mathematics course of the University of Oxford 2010 B 4 iii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The equilibria satisfy and , giving and . At the origin,Their product is , so the origin is a saddle equilibrium for every real .
At either nonzero equilibrium,The determinant is positive and the trace is . Thus both equilibria are attracting for , repelling for , and have purely imaginary eigenvalues at . More precisely they are stable foci for and stable nodes for ; they are unstable foci for and unstable nodes for . At the two discriminant-zero endpoints they are repeated-eigenvalue degenerate nodes, with a nondiagonalizable Jacobian. At , linearization alone does not determine nonlinear stability or prove a nonlinear centre.
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