Applications of Stability Analysis to Nonlinear Discrete Dynamical Systems Modeling Interactions

摘要

Many of the phenomena studied in the natural and social sciences are governed by processes which are discrete and nonlinear in nature, while the most highly developed and commonly used mathematical models are linear and continuous. There are significant differences between the discrete and the continuous, the nonlinear and the linear cases, and the development of mathematical models which exhibit the discrete, nonlinear properties occurring in nature and society is critical to future scientific progress. This thesis presents the basic theory of discrete dynamical systems and stability analysis and explores several applications of this theory to nonlinear systems which model interactions involving economic agents and biological populations. In particular we will explore the stability properties of equilibria associated with inter-species and intergenerational population dynamics in biology and market price and agent composition dynamics in economics.