Toward a Comprehensive Theory for Stability Regions of a Class of Nonlinear Discrete Dynamical Systems

Abstract

A comprehensive theory for the stability boundaries and the stability regions of a general class of nonlinear discrete dynamical systems is developed in this article. This general class of systems is modeled by diffeomorphisms and admits as limit sets only fixed points and periodic orbits. Topological and dynamical characterizations of stability boundaries are developed. Necessary and sufficient conditions for fixed points and periodic orbits to lie on the stability boundary are derived. Numerical examples, including applications to associative neural networks illustrating the theoretical developments, are presented.