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For the cubic population iteration, put $g(u)=\lambda u(1-u^2)$. Its fixed points solveThus $u_{\ast }=0$ always exists. For $\lambda \ne 0$ there are alsowhenever the expression under the square root is positive, namely $\lambda <0$ or $\lambda >1$. At $\lambda =1$ these coincide with zero; at $\lambda =0$ only zero exists.

The criterion for fixed point stability for an iteration is $|g^{\prime }(u_{\ast })|<1$. To justify it, continuity of $g^{\prime }$ gives a small interval around the fixed point where $|g^{\prime }|\le q<1$. The mean value theorem then gives $|g(u)-u_{\ast }|\le q|u-u_{\ast }|$, so this interval is invariant and the error decreases geometrically. This proves local asymptotic stability rather than merely linear boundedness.

Here $g^{\prime }(u)=\lambda (1-3u^2)$. At zero its value is $\lambda$, so zero is locally asymptotically stable for $-1<\lambda <1$. At a nonzero fixed point it isThe strict inequality $|3-2\lambda |<1$ is equivalent to $1<\lambda <2$. Both nonzero real fixed points are therefore locally asymptotically stable on that interval. This proves the two requested existence ranges. The strict derivative criterion alone makes no conclusion at the endpoint multipliers of modulus one.