Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 ia Paper 2 8B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The term represents prey reproduction and limits growth by available food, giving carrying capacity in the absence of hunters. The loss represents encounters between prey and hunters. For hunters, is prey-supported growth and is mortality; their per-capita growth changes sign at prey population . The coordinate axes are invariant, and positive initial populations remain positive.
For , the physical equilibrium points are the origin, , and when . The Jacobian matrix isAt its eigenvalues are and , so the origin is always a saddle equilibrium, attracting along the hunter-only axis and repelling along the prey-only axis. At the eigenvalues areIt is a saddle equilibrium for and an asymptotically stable node for .
For , the coexistence Jacobian matrix isIts trace is negative and determinant positive. Its discriminant is negative, so is an asymptotically stable focus. Interior trajectories approach it in damped, counterclockwise oscillations in the plane. Both populations ultimately coexist.
To justify the global interior fate for this logistic predator-prey model, let and use the Lyapunov functionIt is nonnegative and its sublevel sets are compact inside the positive quadrant. Differentiation gives the explicit cancellationThe only invariant subset on which this vanishes is : remaining at requires . LaSalle's invariance principle therefore proves that every strictly positive initial state converges to this coexistence point.
For , the formal coexistence point has negative and is outside the physical state space. The only physical equilibria are the saddle equilibrium at the origin and the stable prey-only node. Since , positive prey has . Eventually with a fixed margin, so hunter population decays exponentially. When is sufficiently small, comparison with gives for every . Thus and for positive initial prey: hunters die out and prey reaches carrying capacity.
On the boundary, hunter-only initial data approach the origin; prey-only positive data approach in either parameter range. The sketches show representative values in the two requested ranges. Dashed and dotted lines are the prey and hunter nullclines; filled dots are attractors and open dots are saddle equilibria.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 2 6C a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the complete system in the PDF: the TeX omits . Both coordinate axes are invariant, and the equilibrium points are , and . The Jacobian matrix isAt its eigenvalues are , and at they are : both points are saddle equilibria. At the coexistence point,Thus the interior point is a stable spiral. The nontrivial nullclines are and : increases below the first and decreases above it, while increases to the right of the second and decreases to the left. The rotation near coexistence is counterclockwise.
A local linearization by itself does not prove that every interior solution has the same limit. For this logistic predator-prey model, let and use the Lyapunov functionThe inequality makes nonnegative, with equality only at coexistence. Its sublevel sets are compact inside the positive quadrant, because diverges both at the axes and at infinity. Direct differentiation cancels the predator-prey cross terms and givesOn one has , and remaining there requires . The largest invariant subset is therefore the coexistence point. The LaSalle invariance principle provesOn , decays as toward the origin. On , the logistic differential equation takes every to one. The origin itself stays fixed. These boundary trajectories are the exceptions to the interior convergence statement.

