The structure of LaSalle's invariant set for Lotka-Volterra systems (Q1180023)

The aim of this paper is to show, using LaSalle's invariant principle, that the locally asymptotically stable equilibrium point of the Lotka- Volterra food chain system of dimension 7 must be globally stable. The Lotka-Volterra system of dimension 7, non-trivial, concerning this problem, is the following: (1) \(\dot x_ 1=x_ 1(a_{11}(x_ 1- 1)+a_{12}(x_ 2-1))\), \(\dot x_ 2=x_ 2(a_{21}(x_ 1- 1)+a_{24}(x_ 4-1))\), \(\dot x_ 3=x_ 3(a_{31}(x_ 1- 1)+a_{35}(x_ 5-1))\), \(\dot x_ 4=x_ 4(a_{42}(x_ 2-1))\), \(\dot x_ 5=x_ 5(a_{53}(x_ 3-1)+a_{56}(x_ 6-1))\), \(\dot x_ 6=x_ 6(a_{65}(x_ 5-1)+a_{67}(x_ 7-1))\), \(\dot x_ 7=x_ 7(a_{76}(x_ 6-1))\). The LaSalle invariant set of this system is composed of the solutions of the following system: (2) \(\dot x_ 1=1\), \(\dot x_ 2=x_ 2(a_{24}(x_ 4-1)),\ldots,\dot x_ 7=x_ 7(a_{76}(x_ 6-1))\), \(a_{12}(x_ 2-1)+a_{13}(x_ 3-1)=0\). The main result is the following: Theorem 1. The sufficient and necessary conditions for the LaSalle invariant set (2) to contain nonconstant solutions are \(a_{12}+a_{13}=0\), \(a_{24}=a_{35}=a_{65}+a_{67}\), \(a_{42}=a_{76}=a_{53}+a_{56}\). As a consequence of this theorem it is proved Theorem 2. The locally asymptotically stable equilibrium point \(x^*=(1,\ldots,1)\) of the system (1) is globally stable.