NONLINEAR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND DYNAMICS SYSTEMS

On the subject of differential equations many elementary books have been written. This book bridges the gap between elementary courses and research literature. The basic concepts necessary to study differential equations - critical points and equilibrium, periodic solutions, invariant sets and invariant manifolds - are discussed first. Stability theory is then developed starting with linearisation methods going back to Lyapunov and Poincaré.

In the last four chapters more advanced topics like relaxation oscillations, bifurcation theory, chaos in mappings and differential equations, Hamiltonian systems are introduced, leading up to the frontiers of current research: thus the reader can start to work on open research problems, after studying this book.

The subject material is presented from both the qualitative and the quantitative point of view, and is illustrated by many examples.