In mathematics, the point is an equilibrium point for the differential equation
if for all .
Similarly, the point is an equilibrium point (or fixed point) for the difference equation
if for .
Equilibria can be classified by looking at the signs of the eigenvalues of the linearization of the equations about the equilibria. That is to say, by evaluating the Jacobian matrix at each of the equilibrium points of the system, and then finding the resulting eigenvalues, the equilibria can be categorized. Then the behavior of the system in the neighborhood of each equilibrium point can be qualitatively determined, (or even quantitatively determined, in some instances, by finding the eigenvector(s) associated with each eigenvalue).
An equilibrium point is hyperbolic if none of the eigenvalues have zero real part. If all eigenvalues have negative real part, the equilibrium is a stable equation. If at least one has a positive real part, the equilibrium is an unstable node. If at least one eigenvalue has negative real part and at least one has positive real part, the equilibrium is a saddle point.
Famous quotes containing the words equilibrium and/or point:
“There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time. As the air I breathe is drawn from the great repositories of nature, as the light on my book is yielded by a star a hundred millions of miles distant, as the poise of my body depends on the equilibrium of centrifugal and centripetal forces, so the hours should be instructed by the ages and the ages explained by the hours.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)