Frontier Diagrams: Partition of Phase Space According to the Signs of the Eigenvalues or to the Sign Patterns of the Circuits

Nonlinear dynamic systems can be considered in terms of feedback circuits (for short, circuits), which are circular interactions between variables. Each circuit can be identified without ambiguity from the Jacobian matrix of the system. Of special relevance are those circuits (or unions of disjoint circuits) that involve all the variables of the system. We call them “nuclei” because, in the same way as, in Biology, the cell nucleus contains essential genetic information, in nonlinear dynamics, nuclei are crucial elements in the genesis of steady states. Indeed, each