Dynamical system

For the mechanical concept, see Classical dynamics. For the system theoretic perspective, see Dynamical systems theory.

In mathematics, physics, engineering and systems theory, a dynamical system is the description of how a system evolves in time.

For example, an astronomer can experimentally record the positions of how the planets move in the sky, and this can be considered a complete enough description of a dynamical system. In the case of planets there is also enough knowledge to codify this information as a set of differential equations with initial conditions, or as a map from the present state to a future state in a predefined state space with a time parameter t, or as an orbit in phase space.

The study of dynamical systems is the focus of dynamical systems theory, which has applications to a wide variety of fields such as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, economics, history, and medicine. Dynamical systems are a fundamental part of chaos theory, logistic map dynamics, bifurcation theory, the self-assembly and self-organization processes, and the edge of chaos concept.

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