{"entities":{"Q1823036":{"pageid":1833778,"ns":120,"title":"Item:Q1823036","lastrevid":73029474,"modified":"2026-04-14T09:31:42Z","type":"item","id":"Q1823036","labels":{"en":{"language":"en","value":"Instability of an equilibrium in a potential field"}},"descriptions":{"en":{"language":"en","value":"scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4114130"}},"aliases":{},"claims":{"P31":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P31","hash":"fd5912e4dab4b881a8eb0eb27e7893fef55176ad","datavalue":{"value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":56887,"id":"Q56887"},"type":"wikibase-entityid"},"datatype":"wikibase-item"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1823036$ED26B7BE-BAF1-4ED1-B9F3-E0AB37181191","rank":"normal"}],"P159":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P159","hash":"02a8c0fae0619a0a420f0ac995d8582d3af12b57","datavalue":{"value":{"text":"Instability of an equilibrium in a potential field","language":"en"},"type":"monolingualtext"},"datatype":"monolingualtext"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1823036$39634473-7A08-48B3-B3C3-B84CED5EF577","rank":"normal"}],"P225":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P225","hash":"4fec163e4a2ef691420220fe4f231e410b2654e8","datavalue":{"value":"0679.70003","type":"string"},"datatype":"external-id"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1823036$B1623C89-6C46-430D-A7BF-271CBD5E64BD","rank":"normal"}],"P27":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P27","hash":"33a330995d4166f886ef2125d6abb52f6a0c94df","datavalue":{"value":"10.1007/BF00405242","type":"string"},"datatype":"external-id"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1823036$7115E8B1-74FD-4E8A-86C8-562A091C5C59","rank":"normal"}],"P16":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P16","hash":"058447e9bb35dc51b2a08afe120bea9002ce3070","datavalue":{"value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":272235,"id":"Q272235"},"type":"wikibase-entityid"},"datatype":"wikibase-item"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1823036$8559B1C8-DE08-4C11-8D45-16B81F7AE212","rank":"normal"}],"P200":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P200","hash":"511d57c88112b9a679d7b7c8c8c776608976a72a","datavalue":{"value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":163608,"id":"Q163608"},"type":"wikibase-entityid"},"datatype":"wikibase-item"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1823036$C6471CDF-96EB-4C1F-B7A3-D71D659C0BF6","rank":"normal"}],"P28":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P28","hash":"70d2fbf8bcd48a5ca1ac752985098b379d0dbb65","datavalue":{"value":{"time":"+1990-00-00T00:00:00Z","timezone":0,"before":0,"after":0,"precision":9,"calendarmodel":"http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1985727"},"type":"time"},"datatype":"time"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1823036$F2B816DC-22D9-4873-BE60-46455D355F68","rank":"normal"}],"P1448":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P1448","hash":"cfef370ad32d5cb288896da12fe1cab9f8bc0c68","datavalue":{"value":"We study the instability of an equilibrium position (located at the origin in \\({\\mathbb{R}}^ n)\\) of the mechanical system (1) \\((d/dt)L_{x'}(x,x')=L_ x(x,x')\\). The Lagrangian L: \\({\\mathbb{R}}^ n\\times {\\mathbb{R}}^ n\\to {\\mathbb{R}}\\) is given by (2) \\(L(x,x')=T(x,x')-U(x)\\) where, for each \\(x\\in {\\mathbb{R}}^ n\\), the kinetic energy, T(x,x'), is a positive-definite quadratic form in x'. Since adding a constant to the potential energy, U, does not change (1), we can assume \\(U(0)=0.\\) If L is continuously differentiable and U assumes a strict local minimum at \\(x=0\\), then the Lagrange-Dirichlet theorem states that the origin for (1) is stable (that is, for each \\(\\epsilon >0\\), there exists \\(\\delta >0\\) such that if x(t) is a solution of (1) with \\(\\| x(0)\\| +\\| x'(0)\\| <\\delta\\) then \\(\\| x(t)\\| +\\| x'(t)\\| <\\epsilon\\) for all \\(t>0).\\) Several authors have incorrectly claimed that the converse of the Lagrange-Dirichlet theorem is true. However it was shown elsewhere that if \\(n=2\\), \\(T(x,x')=x'\\cdot x'\\), and U: \\({\\mathbb{R}}^ 2\\to {\\mathbb{R}}\\) is the unique infinitely differentiable function satisfying \\[ U(x_ 1,x_ 2)=e^{-x_ 1^{-2}}\\cos (1/x_ 1)-e^{-x_ 2^{-2}}(x^ 2_ 2+\\cos (1/x_ 2)),\\quad x_ 1x_ 2\\neq 0, \\] which is negative and decreasing on the line \\(x_ 2=x_ 1\\), \\(x_ 1>0\\), then the origin for (1) is stable. In this paper we assume that T: \\({\\mathbb{R}}^ n\\times {\\mathbb{R}}^ n\\to {\\mathbb{R}}\\) and U: \\({\\mathbb{R}}^ n-\\{0\\}\\to {\\mathbb{R}}\\) are twice continuously differentiable and, for \\(i=0\\), 1, 2, \\(U^{(i)}(x)=U_ p^{(i)}(x)+O(\\| x\\|^{p+\\epsilon -i})\\) as \\(x\\to 0\\) where \\(p>0\\) and \\(0<\\epsilon \\leq 1\\) are real numbers, and \\(U_ p:\\) \\({\\mathbb{R}}^ n- \\{0\\}\\to {\\mathbb{R}}\\) is positively homogeneous of degree p and three times continuously differentiable. Thus \\(\\lim_{x\\to 0}U(x)=0\\). However the origin is an equilibrium position for (1) (that is \\(\\lim_{x\\to 0}U'(x)=0)\\) if and only if \\(p>1\\). Since (1) is autonomous, the t- translation of any solution of (1) is also a solution of (1); that is if \\(t_ 0\\in {\\mathbb{R}}\\) and x(t) is a solution of (1), then \\(\\hat x(t)=x(t+t_ 0)\\) is also a solution of (1). If, for some \\(x\\in {\\mathbb{R}}^ n-\\{0\\}\\), \\(U_ p(x)<0\\) then we will prove that there is a solution, x(t), of (1) such that \\(\\| x(t)\\| +\\| x'(t)\\| \\to 0\\) as \\(t\\to 0^+\\), when \\(0