Qualitative Analysis: Example 5

Example: Consider the system

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Find the equilibrium points and the nullclines. Draw the vector field. Sketch some solutions and specially the solutions around the equilibrium points.

Answer. The equilibrium points are given by the algebraic system

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It is easy to see that we must have x=0 (from the second equation) and therefore y=0. Hence the system has one equilibrium point (0,0). The x-nullcline are given by the equation

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which is the graph of the function tex2html_wrap_inline58 . The y-nullcline are given by the equation

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which reduces to the line x=0 (the y-axis). In the picture below, we draw the vector field as well as the nullclines.

Clearly, the solutions spiral around the equilibrium point (see the picture below)

Notice that the solutions spiral and get closer to a cycle. We can see this better by looking at the graphs of x versus t as well as the graphs of y versus t.

and

Next Example.

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Author: Mohamed Amine Khamsi

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