Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A simple criterion for checking if a given stationary point of a real-valued function F(x,y) of two real variables is a saddle point is to compute the function's Hessian matrix at that point: if the Hessian is indefinite, then that point is a saddle point. For example, the Hessian matrix of the function = at the stationary point (,,) = (,,) is ...
In mathematics, the method of steepest descent or saddle-point method is an extension of Laplace's method for approximating an integral, where one deforms a contour integral in the complex plane to pass near a stationary point (saddle point), in roughly the direction of steepest descent or stationary phase. The saddle-point approximation is ...
If D(a, b) < 0 then (a, b) is a saddle point of f. If D(a, b) = 0 then the point (a, b) could be any of a minimum, maximum, or saddle point (that is, the test is inconclusive). Sometimes other equivalent versions of the test are used. In cases 1 and 2, the requirement that f xx f yy − f xy 2 is positive at (x, y) implies that f xx and f yy ...
Trajectories to the left of the separatrix converge to the left stable equilibrium, and similarly for the right. The separatrix itself is the stable manifold for the saddle point in the middle. Details are found in the page. The separatrix is clearly visible by numerically solving for trajectories backwards in time. Since when solving for the ...
The geometric interpretation of Newton's method is that at each iteration, it amounts to the fitting of a parabola to the graph of () at the trial value , having the same slope and curvature as the graph at that point, and then proceeding to the maximum or minimum of that parabola (in higher dimensions, this may also be a saddle point), see below.
Further, critical points can be classified using the definiteness of the Hessian matrix: If the Hessian is positive definite at a critical point, then the point is a local minimum; if the Hessian matrix is negative definite, then the point is a local maximum; finally, if indefinite, then the point is some kind of saddle point.
For saddle point problems, however, many discretizations are unstable, giving rise to artifacts such as spurious oscillations. The LBB condition gives criteria for when a discretization of a saddle point problem is stable. The condition is variously referred to as the LBB condition, the Babuška–Brezzi condition, or the "inf-sup" condition.
Hence the fixed point at the origin is a saddle point. The instability of this fixed point is of significance. If it were stable, non-zero populations might be attracted towards it, and as such the dynamics of the system might lead towards the extinction of both species for many cases of initial population levels.