Related papers: The Gentlest Ascent Dynamics
In the paper we describe basin of attraction $p$-adic dynamical system $G(x)=(ax)^2(x+1)$. Moreover, we also describe the Siegel discs of the system, since the structure of the orbits of the system is related to the geometry of the $p$-adic…
Saddle fixed points are the centerpieces of complicated dynamics in a system. The one-dimensional stable and unstable manifolds of these saddle-points are crucial to understanding the dynamics of such systems. While the problem of sketching…
Stochastic dynamical systems allow modelling of transitions induced by disturbances, in particular from an attracting equilibrium and crossing the stable manifold of a saddle. In the small-noise limit, the probability of such transitions is…
We introduce and investigate stochastic processes designed to find local minimizers and saddle points of non-convex functions, exploring the landscape more efficiently than the standard noisy gradient descent. The processes switch between…
We study the performance of stochastic first-order methods for finding saddle points of convex-concave functions. A notorious challenge faced by such methods is that the gradients can grow arbitrarily large during optimization, which may…
How long does a trajectory take to reach a stable equilibrium point in the basin of attraction of a dynamical system? This is a question of quite general interest, and has stimulated a lot of activities in dynamical and stochastic systems…
This paper deals with the stability analysis of a mass-spring system subject to friction using Lyapunov-based arguments. As the described system presents a stick-slip phenomenon, the mass may then periodically sticks to the ground. The…
We develop and analyze numerical discretization to the constrained high-index saddle dynamics, the dynamics searching for the high-index saddle points confined on the high-dimensional unit sphere. Compared with the saddle dynamics without…
We present a dynamical system that naturally exhibits two unstable attractors that are completely enclosed by each others basin volume. This counter-intuitive phenomenon occurs in networks of pulse-coupled oscillators with delayed…
Although stable solutions of dynamical systems are typically considered more important than unstable ones, unstable solutions have a critical role in the dynamical integrity of stable solutions. In fact, usually, basins of attraction…
We examine the behavior of accelerated gradient methods in smooth nonconvex unconstrained optimization, focusing in particular on their behavior near strict saddle points. Accelerated methods are iterative methods that typically step along…
A central challenge to using first-order methods for optimizing nonconvex problems is the presence of saddle points. First-order methods often get stuck at saddle points, greatly deteriorating their performance. Typically, to escape from…
Stability is among the most important concepts in dynamical systems. Local stability is well-studied, whereas determining how "globally stable" a nonlinear system is very challenging. Over the last few decades, many different ideas have…
We introduce a generalized numerical algorithm to construct the solution landscape, which is a pathway map consisting of all stationary points and their connections. Based on the high-index optimization-based shrinking dimer (HiOSD) method…
Escape from a potential well can occur in different physical systems, such as capsize of ships, resonance transitions in celestial mechanics, and dynamic snap-through of arches and shells, as well as molecular reconfigurations in chemical…
This paper studies the design of controllers for discontinuous dynamics that ensure the safety of non-smooth sets. The safe set is represented by arbitrarily nested unions and intersections of 0-superlevel sets of differentiable functions.…
In this paper, we report several new geometric and Lyapunov characterizations of incrementally stable systems on Finsler and Riemannian manifolds. A new and intrinsic proof of an important theorem in contraction analysis is given via the…
For a general class of translationally invariant systems with a specific category of nonlinearity in the output, this paper presents necessary and sufficient conditions for global observability. Critically, this class of systems cannot be…
In this paper we propose a finite-dimensional and deterministic approach to the study of invariant sets of certain nonautonomous differential inclusions naturally arising in the context of random and control dynamical systems, as well as in…
This work establishes sufficient conditions for existence of saddle points in discrete Markov games. The result reveals the relation between dynamic games and static games using dynamic programming equations. This result enables us to prove…