Class time and location: MWF 1-2 in MCS B29

Text: Robinson, Clark: Dynamical Systems: Stability, Symbolic Dynamics, and Chaos (second edition, blue cover), CRC Press, 1999. ISBN number 0-8493-8495-8.

Course web page: http://math.bu.edu/people/paul/MA771.html

This is a beginning graduate-level course in the theory of discrete dynamical systems. We begin by studying notions of recurrence (periodic points, nonwandering points, recurrent points), topological conjugacy, and structural stability. Next we study circle maps and rotation numbers. Our third major topic involves linearization (the Hartman-Grobman theorem and stable manifold theory), and finally a large part of the course is devoted to the theory of hyperbolic invariant sets. If time allows, we may also study some bifurcation theory.

This course is primarily intended for graduate students in mathematics, but it may also be of interest to students in physics or engineering. Undergraduate courses in analysis and the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations are desirable prerequisites, but they are not absolute necessities. The most important prerequisite is ``sufficient mathematical maturity.''

Assignments and grading: Problems will be assigned weekly and will be collected every Friday. You will also do a 50-minute presentation at the end of the semester. Your grade will be determined from the problem sets and the presentation.

Office: MCS Room 255.

Phone number: 617-353-9555. I do not have voice mail.

Email address: paul@bu.edu.

Office hours: Monday 2:30-3:30, Wednesday 3-4, and Friday 2-3.