English

A Globally Asymptotically Stable Planar Homogeneous Polynomial Vector Field With No Polynomial Lyapunov Function

Dynamical Systems 2026-07-17 v1 Systems and Control Optimization and Control

Abstract

We disprove the conjecture that every globally asymptotically stable homogeneous polynomial vector field admits a homogeneous polynomial Lyapunov function. The counterexample is a planar homogeneous cubic polynomial vector field with integer coefficients. It admits no positive definite homogeneous polynomial with nonpositive Lie derivative and, more strongly, no real-analytic Lyapunov function even locally. Nevertheless, it has an explicit degree-two homogeneous Lyapunov function that is radially unbounded, continuously differentiable everywhere, and smooth away from the origin. We also provide a machine-checked Lean 4 formalization of the main result.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.16171,
  title  = {A Globally Asymptotically Stable Planar Homogeneous Polynomial Vector Field With No Polynomial Lyapunov Function},
  author = {Jun Liu and Maxwell Fitzsimmons},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.16171},
  year   = {2026}
}