State of a dynamic system after an infinitely long time
This article is about the notion of a limit set in the area of dynamical systems. For the notion of a limit in set theory, see
Set-theoretic limit.
In
mathematics, especially in the study of
dynamical systems, a limit set is the state a dynamical system reaches after an infinite amount of time has passed, by either going forward or backwards in time. Limit sets are important because they can be used to understand the long term behavior of a dynamical system. A system that has reached its limiting set is said to be at equilibrium.
Types
In general, limits sets can be very complicated as in the case of
strange attractors, but for 2-dimensional dynamical systems the
Poincaré–Bendixson theorem provides a simple characterization of all nonempty, compact -limit sets that contain at most finitely many fixed points as a fixed point, a periodic orbit, or a union of fixed points and
homoclinic or
heteroclinic orbits connecting those fixed points.
Definition for iterated functions
Let be a
metric space, and let be a
continuous function. The -limit set of , denoted by , is the set of
cluster points of the
forward orbit of the
iterated function .
[1] Hence,
if and only if there is a strictly increasing sequence of natural numbers such that as . Another way to express this is
where denotes the closure of set . The points in the limit set are non-wandering (but may not be
recurrent points). This may also be formulated as the outer limit (
limsup) of a sequence of sets, such that
If is a
homeomorphism (that is, a bicontinuous bijection), then the -limit set is defined in a similar fashion, but for the backward orbit; i.e. .
Both sets are -invariant, and if is
compact, they are compact and nonempty.
Definition for flows
Given a
real dynamical system with
flow , a point , we call a point y an -limit point of if there exists a sequence in so that
- .
For an
orbit of , we say that is an -limit point of , if it is an -limit point of some point on the orbit.
Analogously we call an -limit point of if there exists a sequence in so that
- .
For an
orbit of , we say that is an -limit point of , if it is an -limit point of some point on the orbit.
The set of all -limit points (-limit points) for a given orbit is called -limit set (-limit set) for and denoted ().
If the -limit set (-limit set) is disjoint from the orbit , that is (), we call () a
ω-limit cycle (
α-limit cycle).
Alternatively the limit sets can be defined as
and
Examples
- For any
periodic orbit of a dynamical system,
- For any
fixed point of a dynamical system,
Properties
- and are
closed
- if is compact then and are
nonempty,
compact and
connected
- and are -invariant, that is and
See also
References
-
^ Alligood, Kathleen T.; Sauer, Tim D.; Yorke, James A. (1996). Chaos, an introduction to dynamical systems. Springer.
Further reading
This article incorporates material from Omega-limit set on
PlanetMath, which is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.