Topic summary
Equilibrium points
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Equilibrium point (mathematics).
Formal definition
Equilibria can be classified by looking at the signs of the eigenvalues of the linearization of the equations about the equilibria. That is to say, by evaluating the Jacobian matrix at each of the equilibrium points of the system, and then finding the resulting eigenvalues, the equilibria can be categorized. Then the behavior of the system in the neighborhood of each equilibrium point can be qualitatively determined, (or even quantitatively determined, in some instances), by finding the eigenvector(s) associated with each eigenvalue.