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Hyperbolic equilibrium point

Fixed point that does not have any center manifolds

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
2 min read
Source updated April 28, 2026
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In the study of dynamical systems, a hyperbolic equilibrium point or hyperbolic fixed point is a fixed point that does not have any center manifolds. Near a hyperbolic point the orbits of a two-dimensional, non-dissipative system resemble hyperbolas. This fails to hold in general. Strogatz notes that "hyperbolic is an unfortunate name, it sounds like it should mean 'saddle point', but it has become standard." Several properties hold about a neighborhood of a hyperbolic point, notably

01Maps

If T\colon \mathbb {R} ^{n}\to \mathbb {R} ^{n} is a C1 map and p is a fixed point then p is said to be a hyperbolic fixed point when the Jacobian matrix \operatorname {D} T(p) has no eigenvalues on the complex unit circle.

One example of a map whose only fixed point is hyperbolic is Arnold's cat map:

{\begin{bmatrix}x_{n+1}\\y_{n+1}\end{bmatrix}}={\begin{bmatrix}1&1\\1&2\end{bmatrix}}{\begin{bmatrix}x_{n}\\y_{n}\end{bmatrix}}

Since the eigenvalues are given by

\lambda _{1}={\frac {3+{\sqrt {5}}}{2}}
\lambda _{2}={\frac {3-{\sqrt {5}}}{2}}

We know that the Lyapunov exponents are:

\lambda _{1}={\frac {\ln(3+{\sqrt {5}})}{2}}>1
\lambda _{2}={\frac {\ln(3-{\sqrt {5}})}{2}}<1

Therefore, it is a saddle point.

02Flows

Let F\colon \mathbb {R} ^{n}\to \mathbb {R} ^{n} be a C1 vector field with a critical point p, i.e., F(p) = 0, and let J denote the Jacobian matrix of F at p. If the matrix J has no eigenvalues with zero real parts then p is called hyperbolic. Hyperbolic fixed points may also be called hyperbolic critical points or elementary critical points.

The Hartman-Grobman theorem states that the orbit structure of a dynamical system in a neighbourhood of a hyperbolic equilibrium point is topologically equivalent to the orbit structure of the linearized dynamical system.

Example

Consider the nonlinear system

{\begin{aligned}{\frac {dx}{dt}}&=y,\\[5pt]{\frac {dy}{dt}}&=-x-x^{3}-\alpha y,~\alpha \neq 0\end{aligned}}

(0, 0) is the only equilibrium point. The Jacobian matrix of the linearization at the equilibrium point is

J(0,0)=\left[{\begin{array}{rr}0&1\\-1&-\alpha \end{array}}\right].

The eigenvalues of this matrix are {\frac {-\alpha \pm {\sqrt {\alpha ^{2}-4}}}{2}}. For all values of α ≠ 0, the eigenvalues have non-zero real part. Thus, this equilibrium point is a hyperbolic equilibrium point. The linearized system will behave similar to the non-linear system near (0, 0). When α = 0, the system has a nonhyperbolic equilibrium at (0, 0).

03Comments

In the case of an infinite dimensional system, for example systems involving a time delay, the notion of the "hyperbolic part of the spectrum" refers to the above property.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Hyperbolic equilibrium point”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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