Almost, but not quite a trapping region

dynamical systemsterminology

I'm looking for a term for something that almost fits the definition of a trapping region. According to wikipedia, a set is a trapping region for a dynamical system if every trajectory which starts within the set will move to the region's interior, and will remain there as the system evolves.

I've proved that a closed set I'm working with almost fits this definition: trajectories which start in the set remain in the set as the system evolves, but they may remain on the boundary of the set, rather than moving to the interior. Is there a term for this? Is the term trapping region sometimes used in this way?

Best Answer

It's called a forward invariant set or positively invariant set.

(The condition is that solutions starting in the set stay in the set for all $t \ge 0$. This includes actually being defined for all $t\ge 0$, in contrast to blowing up after finite time; if the set is compact, this detail is nothing to worry about.)

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