A nondegenerate hyperbola centred at the origin has a quadratic equation
There are no linear terms because the origin is its centre. Its asymptotes are the zero set of the homogeneous quadratic form . Requiring the directions and gives , hence and . Since the conic section is nondegenerate, and are nonzero. Thus all such hyperbolas with prescribed asymptotes are exactly
For these rectangular hyperbolas open along the -axis, and for along the -axis. Conversely, each displayed hyperbola has the required centre and asymptotes. Two distinct members have different values of , so they cannot intersect.
For the second pair of asymptotes, the same argument gives , . The intersections of concentric hyperbolas therefore satisfy
If both right sides are positive, there are four independent sign choices. If precisely one is zero and the other is positive, there are two points. If either is negative there are none; both cannot vanish because . Each possibility occurs: take for four, for two, and for none. Hence
Represent the quadratic form by the symmetric matrix
The spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices gives an orthogonal matrix and real eigenvalues such that . In the orthogonal change of coordinates , the equation becomes .
If both eigenvalues are positive, this is an ellipse with semiaxes and . Conversely, a zero eigenvalue makes the set either empty or unbounded along that coordinate, while two negative eigenvalues give the empty set. Opposite signs give an unbounded hyperbola. A negative eigenvalue together with a zero one also gives the empty set. None of those cases is an ellipse. Therefore the exact condition is that be a symmetric positive-definite matrix.
The sum and product of its eigenvalues are its matrix trace and determinant:
Two real numbers are both positive precisely when their sum and product are positive. Thus
An orthogonal transformation preserves area. Using i gives the quadratic-form ellipse area
Assume . The velocity in polar coordinates is . Hence
Taking the dot product of the conserved Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector with gives
Consequently the polar equation of a conic is
Only angles for which the denominator is positive describe the physical trajectory. Its eccentricity is , giving an ellipse, parabola, or hyperbola when this ratio is respectively less than, equal to, or greater than .
If , the angle is undefined, but the same dot product identity gives the circular orbit . If , the trajectory is radial and the displayed division degenerates; for , and on a fixed ray, so the identity does not determine as a function of a varying angle.
The upper boundary follows until its intersection with at , then follows the hyperbola to . The lower boundary is . Therefore the two vertical-slice descriptions are , , and , .
Figure 1.
The integration region below a line and a hyperbola
. Original shaded region with all four boundary pieces shown. Vertical slices change their upper endpoint at . Details.
Integrating with respect to first reduces the double integral to
Using the antiderivatives from part (a),
Near a nondegenerate stationary point, the quadratic part of the Taylor expansion determines the local contour plot. For a strict local maximum, the model gives nested closed level sets, with values decreasing as one moves outward. For a strict local minimum, the model gives the same nested shape with values increasing outward. Unequal nonzero quadratic coefficients stretch the circles into ellipses after a rotation to the Hessian matrix's eigenvectors.
For a nondegenerate saddle point of a scalar function, the model gives hyperbolas. Levels above open along the positive-curvature direction; levels below open along the negative-curvature direction. The critical level set is the two crossing lines . Degenerate stationary points can have different local geometry, so these are the standard nondegenerate sketches.
Figure 1.
Local contours at a maximum, a minimum, and a saddle point
. Original quadratic-model sketches with contour values labelled relative to the central value zero. Maxima and minima have closed contours with opposite value ordering; the saddle has crossing zero contours and hyperbolic nearby levels. Details.
Set both first partial derivatives equal to zero:
Thus and , independently, giving exactly nine stationary points. The Hessian matrix is diagonal everywhere:
Its diagonal entries are its eigenvalues, so the second-derivative test immediately classifies the points:
In particular,
All nine stationary points are nondegenerate, so no higher-order test is needed. Neither type of local extremum is global: as , whereas as .
To organize the contour plot, complete the squares:
The level set through all four outer saddle points of a scalar function factors exactly:
It is therefore the union of the circle and the hyperbola , which cross at those four saddle points of a scalar function. Near the origin, , so the zero contours have tangents . These two exact structural features, together with the nested contours around the four local extrema, determine the requested sketch. They are an example of a separable quartic landscape with nine stationary points.
Figure 1.
All nine stationary points and contours of the separable quartic
. Original contour plot of . The two maxima, two minima and five saddles are marked. The exact level is highlighted as a circle and a hyperbola intersecting at the four outer saddles; the zero contour crosses at the origin. Details.
Write . The graph is a translated hyperbola, with vertical asymptote and horizontal asymptote . It passes through , lies below for and above it for , and has derivative on each component of its domain. The left panel below shows both branches.
Figure 1.
The rational hyperbola and the convex graph of the logarithmic product
. Details.
Since , a level can occur only for . Taking its natural logarithm gives . Thus produces rectangular hyperbolas in the first and third quadrants, produces them in the second and fourth quadrants, and consists of both coordinate axes.
The gradient vanishes only at , where . The Hessian matrix there is , with negative determinant. Equivalently, while for nonzero small . Hence the only stationary point is a saddle point at on the graph; its location in the contour plane is the origin.
Figure 1.
Contours of the exponential of xy, showing the unique saddle at the origin
. Details.
The curve has and can be written . It is a hyperbola with vertical asymptote and oblique asymptote , crossing the horizontal axis at . It is symmetric under .
On each branch . For , the branch descends from as , passes through , and approaches from above as . The negative branch follows by the central symmetry.
Figure 1.
The two hyperbola branches and their asymptotes, with the nearest point on the positive-horizontal branch marked
. Details.
The hyperbolic functions identity eliminates from the parametric curve:
The restriction is essential: , so the parametrization traces only the right branch of the full hyperbola. Conversely, every point on that right branch is reached by taking .
Solving for gives with . For large , the square root is , so the two asymptotes are
The curve lies between these lines on the right side and has its nearest point, with vertical tangent, at . As increases it travels from the lower unbounded end through that vertex to the upper unbounded end. The left hyperbola branch is not part of the given curve.
Figure 1.
The parametrized right branch of a hyperbola, its foci, nearest point, and asymptotes
. Details.
Substituting the line into the hyperbola gives
The two polynomial roots give all intersections:
Both satisfy the original line as well as the curve.
The exponential function is strictly positive, so the zero level set is determined entirely by its prefactor:
This is a rectangular hyperbola with branches in the first and third quadrants.
The sign of is the sign of . Therefore
The positive region includes both coordinate axes, the second and fourth quadrants, and the portions of the first and third quadrants on the origin side of the hyperbola. The two negative regions lie beyond its branches. The left-hand panel shows these regions; its markers locate the stationary points calculated next.
Figure 1.
Sign regions, stationary points and completed contour map of the Gaussian-weighted function
. Details.
In the positive quadrant, both components of the gradient are positive. Along the arrows point along ; near the horizontal axis they point mainly upwards, and near the vertical axis mainly rightwards. The level sets are the hyperbolas , including the coordinate axes for level zero. The gradient is orthogonal to each regular level set and points towards increasing values of .
Figure 1.
Gradient vectors and hyperbolic level sets of twice the coordinate product
. Details.
Write . Its coordinates are , , so . For the given positive range of , this traces a segment of the first-quadrant hyperbola, moving rightward and downward:
The complex conjugate is . It is the reflection in the real axis, tracing in the fourth quadrant, rightward and upward:
Neither trajectory crosses either axis, because and remain nonzero. The left panel of the figure marks the endpoints and directions.
Figure 1.
Trajectories under complex conjugation, squaring and fourth powers, with endpoints and axis crossings
. Details.
The graph is the upper branch of the hyperbola . It is symmetric about , positive everywhere, and has its lowest point at . Its derivatives are
so it is strictly convex. Since
its two oblique asymptotes are
Figure 1.
Distance from a moving point to a skew line
. Original plot of , its minimum and its two asymptotes. Details.
At a differentiable interior stationary point, all first-order changes of the scalar field vanish. In particular, the directional derivative along each coordinate axis vanishes, so and hence . Equivalently, the first-order differential vanishes for every displacement. A differentiable interior maximum or minimum must satisfy this condition; a stationary point need not be an extremum.
The standard nondegenerate local contour plot models are for a maximum, for a minimum, and for a saddle point of a scalar function. Near a maximum, nested contours have lower values farther from the centre; near a minimum they have higher values. Near a saddle, hyperbolas occur on opposite sides of the critical level, whose contour has two intersecting tangent directions. More general nondegenerate quadratic forms deform these circles into ellipses; degenerate stationary points can have more complicated contours.
Figure 1.
Local contours near a maximum, a minimum and a saddle
. Original quadratic models, with signed contour labels showing how the field changes away from each stationary point. Details.
For , completing the square gives the conic section
The possible levels follow from
For , the contours are ellipses centred at , shrinking to the maximum as . The zero contour is the parabola from part (c). For , the contours are vertical-opening hyperbolas. At they degenerate into the intersecting straight lines, and for they are horizontal-opening hyperbolas. These descriptions specify the remaining contour families and their symmetry about the axis. The lower bound is approached as at fixed but is never attained.
Figure 1.
Contours and an ascending gradient trajectory
. Original contours of the rational scalar field. The critical points are marked; the green parabola is the zero contour and the crossing dashed lines have level . The red trajectory starts at and follows the positive gradient towards the maximum, as discussed in part (e). Details.
For holomorphic in , the Cauchy-Riemann equations are and . Therefore the normal vectors to the two level curves obey
At a point where , both gradients are nonzero, so their perpendicular tangent lines are also perpendicular. At critical points this argument does not assert that regular level curves exist.
Take
Its real part is , so the specified first family is . Its imaginary part is , so the second family is . Since , their intersections exclude the origin, where would vanish. Thus these hyperbolas meet orthogonally as required.