Construction of Lyapunov functions for nonlinear systems using normal forms (Q1378744)

The authors are interested in the problem of recognizing asymptotic stability at the origin for a nonlinear autonomous system \[ \dot x= f(x). \] It is assumed that \(f\) is analytic, that its linearization does not have eigenvalues with positive real part and that the centre manifold corresponds to one of the following configurations: (i) one zero simple eigenvalue, (ii) a pair of purely imaginary simple eigenvalues. In the first part of the paper, the authors provide procedures for efficient normal form computations. In the second part, by using normal form expansions, a procedure for computing a Lyapunov function is described.