Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Dynamics and Computation, first exam,

10th of June 2020, 14:00–16:00

Motivate your answers. Calculators are not allowed. This exam counts for 50% of your final mark.
Points are distributed as in the following table.

Question Points
1 2
2(a) 2
2(b) 1
2(c) 1
3(a) 2
3(b) 4
3(c) 2
3(d) 2
4 2

The final mark is obtained with the following formula: (number points awarded + 2)/2.

Question 1

Consider the initial-value problem

𝑥′ = 𝑥 − 𝑥3 , 𝑥(0) = 𝑥 0

Sketch the solution 𝑥(𝑡) when 𝑥 0 = 3/2 and 𝑥 0 = 1/2 , without solving the initial-value problem.

Question 2

Consider the following system of ordinary differential equations

𝑥 ′ = 𝑦,
𝑦 ′ = −2𝑥 − 3𝑦.

(a) Find the general solution (𝑥(𝑡), 𝑦(𝑡)) to this system.

(b) Find the unique solution to the system with initial condition (𝑥(0), 𝑦(0)) = (0, 1) .
(c) Sketch the solution from (b) in the phase plane
Question 3
Consider the following system of nonlinear differential equations

𝑥′ = 𝑥 − 𝑦2 ,
𝑦 ′ = −𝑥 + 2𝑦.

(a) Sketch the nullclines, and use arrows to show the direction of the vectorfield on these nullclines
(b) Determine steady states of the system above, and classify each of them using linear stability
analysis
(c) For each steady state in (b) compute the stable and unstable directions using linear stability
analysis
(d) In a separate picture from (a), draw a phase portrait containing: the steady states, any local
stable/unstable manifold from (c), and a sketch of a few solutions to give an impression of the
dynamics

Question 4
Consider the generic one-dimensional map 𝑥 𝑛+1 = 𝑓(𝑥 𝑛 ) . Give a definition of fixed point for the
map. Give (without proof) a sufficient condition for the linear stability of a fixed point of the map.