Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
Summary
The purpose of this book is to provide a broad and general introduction to the subject of dynamical systems, suitable for a one- or two-semester graduate course. We introduce the principal themes of dynamical systems both through examples and by explaining and proving fundamental and accessible results. We make no attempt to be exhaustive in our treatment of any particular area.
This book grew out of lecture notes from the graduate dynamical systems course at the University of Maryland, College Park. The choice of topics reflects not only the tastes of the authors, but also to a large extent the collective opinion of the Dynamics Group at the University of Maryland, which includes experts in virtually every major area of dynamical systems.
Early versions of this book have been used by several instructors at Maryland, the University of Bonn, and Pennsylvania State University. Experience shows that with minor omissions the first five chapters of the book can be covered in a one-semester course. Instructors who wish to cover a different set of topics may safely omit some of the sections at the end of Chapter 1, §§2.7–§2.8, §§3.5–3.8, and §§4.8–4.12, and then choose from topics in later chapters. Examples from Chapter 1 are used throughout the book. Chapter 6 depends on Chapter 5, but the other chapters are essentially independent. Every section ends with exercises (starred exercises are the most difficult).
The exposition of most of the concepts and results in this book has been refined over the years by various authors. Since most of these ideas have appeared so often and in so many variants in the literature, we have not attempted to identify the original sources.
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- Introduction to Dynamical Systems , pp. xi - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002