NonlinearBook10pt November 20, 2007
DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS AND DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS 71
satisfying |||x − y||| < δ. Hence, T (·) is uniformly continuous on X.
Conversely, assume T (·) is uniformly continuous on X. Then T (·) is
continuous at x = 0. Hence, given ε > 0 there exists δ = δ(ε) such that
|||x||| ≤ ε implies |||T (x)|||
′
= |||T x|||
′
≤ δ. Next, f or x ∈ X, x 6= 0, let y = βx,
where β = ε/|||x|||. Now, since |||y||| = |||βx||| = ε it follows that |||T y|||
′
≤ δ.
Hence,
|||T y|||
′
= |||T βx|||
′
= β|||T x|||
′
= ε
|||T x|||
′
|||x|||
≤ δ,
which implies that
|||T x|||
′
≤
δ
ε
|||x|||,
and h en ce, T (·) is bounded on X.
2.6 Dynamical Systems, Flows, and Vector Fields
As discussed in Chapter 1, a system is a combination of components or parts
which is perceived as a s ingle entity. T he parts making up the system are
typically clearly defined with a particular set of variables, called the states
of the system, that completely determine the behavior of the system at a
given time. Hence, a dynamical system consists of a set of possible states in
a given space, together with a rule that determines the present state of the
system in terms of past states. Thus, a dynamical system on D ⊆ R
n
tells
us for a specific time t = t
0
and state x in the space D where the system
state x will be at time t ≥ t
0
. In this book, we view a dynamical system
as a precise mathematical object defined on a time interval as a mapping
between vector spaces satisfying a set of axioms. For this defi nition D is an
open s ubset of R
n
.
Definition 2.47. A dynamical system on D is the triple (D, R, s),
where s : R × D → D is such that the following axioms hold:
i) (Continuity): s(·, ·) is continuous on D×R and for every t ∈ R, s(·, x)
is continuously differentiable on D.
ii) (Con s istency): s(0, x
0
) = x
0
for all x
0
∈ D.
iii) (Group property): s(τ, s(t, x
0
)) = s(t + τ, x
0
) for all x
0
∈ D and
t, τ ∈ R.
Henceforth, we denote the dynamical system (D, R, s) by G and we
refer to the m ap s(·, ·) as the flow or trajectory of G corresponding to x
0
∈ D,
and for a given s(t, x
0
), t ≥ 0, we refer to x
0
∈ D as an initial condition of G.
Given t ∈ R we denote the map s(t, ·) : D → D by s
t
(x
0
) or s
t
. Hence, for