At a hyperbolic saddle, the stable invariant subspace of is the sum of its generalized eigenspaces with negative real parts; the unstable subspace uses positive real parts. The stable manifold theorem gives invariant local manifolds tangent to these subspaces at the equilibrium, with the corresponding dimensions and the appropriate forward or backward convergence to the equilibrium.
Here the Jacobian is , so the unstable tangent is the axis and the stable tangent the axis. For the stable graph write . Invariance requires . Comparing quadratic and cubic terms gives and , so .
For the unstable graph , invariance is . Coefficients give and , so . Thus the cubic graph expansion of a saddle invariant manifold is
These describe the local manifolds to cubic order, not exact global polynomial curves.