Based on a lecture course, this text gives a rigorous introduction to nonlinear analysis, dynamical systems and bifurcation theory including catastrophe theory. Wherever appropriate it emphasizes a geometrical or coordinate-free approach allowing a clear focus on the essential mathematical structures. It brings out features common to different branches of the subject while giving ample references for more advanced or technical developments.

Bifurcation theory and catastrophe theory are two well-known areas within the field of dynamical systems. Both are studies of smooth systems, focusing on properties that seem to be manifestly non-smooth. Bifurcation theory is concerned with the sudden changes that occur in a system when one or more parameters are varied. Examples of such are familiar to students of differential equations, from phase portraits. Understanding the bifurcations of the differential equations that describe real physical systems provides important information about the behavior of the systems. Catastrophe theory became quite famous during the 1970's, mostly because of the sensation caused by the usually less than rigorous applications of its principal ideas to "hot topics", such as the characterization of personalities and the difference between a "genius" and a "maniac". Catastrophe theory is accurately described as singularity theory and its (genuine) applications. The authors of this book, previously published as Volume 5 of the Encyclopaedia, have given a masterly exposition of these two theories, with penetrating insight.

Suitable for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers, this self-contained textbook provides an introduction to the mathematics lying at the foundations of bifurcation theory. The theory is built up gradually, beginning with the well-developed approach to singularity theory through right-equivalence. The text proceeds with contact equivalence of map-germs and finally presents the path formulation of bifurcation theory. This formulation, developed partly by the author, is more general and more flexible than the original one dating from the 1980s. A series of appendices discuss standard background material, such as calculus of several variables, existence and uniqueness theorems for ODEs, and some basic material on rings and modules. Based on the author's own teaching experience, the book contains numerous examples and illustrations. The wealth of end-of-chapter problems develop and reinforce understanding of the key ideas and techniques: solutions to a selection are provided.

Catastrophe Theory was introduced in the 1960s by the renowned Fields Medal mathematician René Thom as a part of the general theory of local singularities. Since then it has found applications across many areas, including biology, economics, and chemical kinetics. By investigating the phenomena of bifurcation and chaos, Catastrophe Theory proved to

Providing readers with a solid basis in dynamical systems theory, as well as explicit procedures for application of general mathematical results to particular problems, the focus here is on efficient numerical implementations of the developed techniques. The book is designed for advanced undergraduates or graduates in applied mathematics, as well as for Ph.D. students and researchers in physics, biology, engineering, and economics who use dynamical systems as model tools in their studies. A moderate mathematical background is assumed, and, whenever possible, only elementary mathematical tools are used. This new edition preserves the structure of the first while updating the context to incorporate recent theoretical developments, in particular new and improved numerical methods for bifurcation analysis.