Dynamical Systems, Stability, and Chaos

In this expository and resources chapter we review selected aspects of the mathematics of dynamical systems, stability, and chaos, within a historical framework that draws together two threads of its early development: celestial mechanics and control theory, and focussing on qualitative theory. From this perspective we show how concepts of stability enable us to classify dynamical equations and their solutions and connect the key issues of nonlinearity, bifurcation, control, and uncertainty that are common to time-dependent problems in natural and engineered systems. We discuss stability and bifurcations in three simple model problems, and conclude with a survey of recent extensions of stability theory to complex networks.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures. 26/04/2007: The book title was changed at the last minute. No other changes have been made. Chapter 1 in: J.P. Denier and J.S. Frederiksen (editors), Frontiers in Turbulence and Coherent Structures. World Scientific Singapore 2007 (in press

Permanence and almost periodic solution of a multispecies Lotka-Volterra mutualism system with time varying delays on time scales

In this paper, we consider the almost periodic dynamics of a multispecies Lotka-Volterra mutualism system with time varying delays on time scales. By establishing some dynamic inequalities on time scales, a permanence result for the model is obtained. Furthermore, by means of the almost periodic functional hull theory on time scales and Lyapunov functional, some criteria are obtained for the existence, uniqueness and global attractivity of almost periodic solutions of the model. Our results complement and extend some scientific work in recent years. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the main results.Comment: 31page

Nonlinear physics of electrical wave propagation in the heart: a review

The beating of the heart is a synchronized contraction of muscle cells (myocytes) that are triggered by a periodic sequence of electrical waves (action potentials) originating in the sino-atrial node and propagating over the atria and the ventricles. Cardiac arrhythmias like atrial and ventricular fibrillation (AF,VF) or ventricular tachycardia (VT) are caused by disruptions and instabilities of these electrical excitations, that lead to the emergence of rotating waves (VT) and turbulent wave patterns (AF,VF). Numerous simulation and experimental studies during the last 20 years have addressed these topics. In this review we focus on the nonlinear dynamics of wave propagation in the heart with an emphasis on the theory of pulses, spirals and scroll waves and their instabilities in excitable media and their application to cardiac modeling. After an introduction into electrophysiological models for action potential propagation, the modeling and analysis of spatiotemporal alternans, spiral and scroll meandering, spiral breakup and scroll wave instabilities like negative line tension and sproing are reviewed in depth and discussed with emphasis on their impact in cardiac arrhythmias.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Multi-class oscillating systems of interacting neurons

We consider multi-class systems of interacting nonlinear Hawkes processes modeling several large families of neurons and study their mean field limits. As the total number of neurons goes to infinity we prove that the evolution within each class can be described by a nonlinear limit differential equation driven by a Poisson random measure, and state associated central limit theorems. We study situations in which the limit system exhibits oscillatory behavior, and relate the results to certain piecewise deterministic Markov processes and their diffusion approximations.Comment: 6 figure

Qualitative analysis of dynamic equations on time scales

In this article, we establish the Picard-Lindelof theorem and approximating results for dynamic equations on time scale. We present a simple proof for the existence and uniqueness of the solution. The proof is produced by using convergence and Weierstrass M-test. Furthermore, we show that the Lispchitz condition is not necessary for uniqueness. The existence of epsilon-approximate solution is established under suitable assumptions. Moreover, we study the approximate solution of the dynamic equation with delay by studying the solution of the corresponding dynamic equation with piecewise constant argument. We show that the exponential stability is preserved in such approximations.Comment: 13 page

Monotone and near-monotone biochemical networks

Monotone subsystems have appealing properties as components of larger networks, since they exhibit robust dynamical stability and predictability of responses to perturbations. This suggests that natural biological systems may have evolved to be, if not monotone, at least close to monotone in the sense of being decomposable into a “small” number of monotone components, In addition, recent research has shown that much insight can be attained from decomposing networks into monotone subsystems and the analysis of the resulting interconnections using tools from control theory. This paper provides an expository introduction to monotone systems and their interconnections, describing the basic concepts and some of the main mathematical results in a largely informal fashion