The Poincaré-Bendixson theorem for monotone cyclic feedback systems (Q923807)

The authors consider systems of the form (*) \(\dot x^ i=f^ i(x^ i,x^{i-1})\), \(i=1,2,...,n\), where we agree to interpret \(x^ 0\) as \(x^ n\). They assume that the nonlinearity \(f=(f^ 1,f^ 2,...,f^ n)\) is defined on a nonempty open set \(U\subset R^ n\) with the property that each coordinate projection \(U^ i\subset {\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) of U onto the \((x^ i,x^{i-1})\)-plane is convex and that \(f^ i\in C^ 1(U^ i).They\) assume also for some \(\delta^ i\in \{1,+1\}\), that (**): \(\delta^ i\partial f^ j(x^ i,x^{i-1})/\partial x^{i-1}>0\) for all \((x^ i,x^{i-1})\in U^ i\) and \(i=1,2,...,n\). Such a system, of the form (*) satisfying (**), is called a monotone cyclic feedback system. The main result of this paper is that the Poincaré-Bendixson theorem holds for monotone cyclic feedback systems. The organization of this paper is as follows. In {\S} 1 a principal tool, an integer valued Lyapunov function N is developed. {\S} 2 is concerned with the Floquet theory of linear monotone cyclic feedback systems. {\S} 3 is devoted to the proof of the main result. Finally, in {\S} 4 various applications are treated.