Get initial conditions for iterative Runge-Kutta method

numerical methodsordinary differential equationsrunge-kutta-methods

As part of my class, I have the following assignment.

Based on the Runge-Kutta method, solve $$ \begin{aligned} \dot x &= \mu x − y + x y^2 \\ \dot y &= x + \mu y + y^3 \end{aligned} $$ with $\mu \in \{ −1.0, −0.5, −0.2, 0.0, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 \}$ and your initial conditions (choose several). Draw your solutions in the $(x,y)$ domain with several paths from the above initial conditions.


So far I have only come across questions based on iterative numerical methods that have initial conditions but this one does not. How do I get several initial conditions?

Best Answer

I have programmed your differential system using one of the Runge-Kutta "blackboxes" of Matlab. Here is the result :

enter image description here

Fig. 1 : Case $\mu=0.1$. Superposition of the vector field and "trajectories" ("pathes" as you call them) with initial points of the form $(x_0;0)$, that indeed follow the direction indicated One sees a spiral effect when $|x_0|<1.$

How can be explained this spiral effect when $x$ is small ?

This is because system :

$$\begin{cases}\dot x = μx − y + xy^2\\ \dot y = x + μy + y^3\end{cases}$$

can be written :

$$\underbrace{\begin{pmatrix}\dot x\\ \dot y \end{pmatrix}=\begin{pmatrix}\mu & - 1\\ 1 & \mu \end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}x\\ y \end{pmatrix}}_{(S)}+y^2\begin{pmatrix}x\\ y \end{pmatrix}$$

which appears, in the vicinity of the origin ($x,y$ "small enough"), as a little perturbation of system (S). This system is classical and leads to a spiraling behavior. Did you know it ? It is very similar to Lotka-Volterra equations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka%E2%80%93Volterra_equations).