English

Universal Approximation Theorems for Dynamical Systems with Infinite-Time Horizon Guarantees

Dynamical Systems 2026-02-12 v2 Neurons and Cognition

Abstract

Universal approximation theorems establish the expressive capacity of neural network architectures. For dynamical systems, existing results are limited to finite time horizons or systems with a globally stable equilibrium, leaving multistability and limit cycles unaddressed. We prove that Neural ODEs achieve ε\varepsilon-δ\delta closeness -- trajectories within error ε\varepsilon except for initial conditions of measure <δ< \delta -- over the \emph{infinite} time horizon [0,)[0,\infty) for three target classes: (1) Morse-Smale systems (a structurally stable class) with hyperbolic fixed points, (2) Morse-Smale systems with hyperbolic limit cycles via exact period matching, and (3) systems with normally hyperbolic continuous attractors via discretization. We further establish a temporal generalization bound: ε\varepsilon-δ\delta closeness implies LpL^p error εp+δDp\leq \varepsilon^p + \delta \cdot D^p for all t0t \geq 0, bridging topological guarantees to training metrics. These results provide the first universal approximation framework for multistable infinite-horizon dynamics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.08640,
  title  = {Universal Approximation Theorems for Dynamical Systems with Infinite-Time Horizon Guarantees},
  author = {Abel Sagodi and Il Memming Park},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.08640},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:27:53.453Z