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}
}