No label defined (Q4025432)

Lyapunov's second method (i.e., Lyapunov's direct method) is an important and well known method of determining the stability of a dynamical system, especially for nonlinear dynamical systems. If a Lyapunov function can be found for the given system in a region containing an equilibrium point of the system, then the equilibrium point is stable (asymptotically stable etc.). A Lyapunov function needs to be a positive definite function of the state variables of the dynamical system (which is governed by an ordinary equation or a difference equation). A good candidate of Lyapunov function is a positive definite quadratic function of all (state) variables of the dynamical system. This paper was motivated by the importance of a positive definite quadratic function in Lyapunov's stability theory. The author studies a modified form of the positive definite function, namely a partial positive definite quadratic function. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a quadratic function of given rank to be a partial positive definite function with respect to the partial variables are given. A criterion for checking the partial positive-definiteness of the matrix in the quadratic form function is also given. Numerical examples illustrate well the key results in the paper. The paper is interesting, but the concept of partial stability and its usefulness in practice is questionable.