Deterministic Dynamical Systems

In this chapter, we first give the general and abstract definition of a deterministic dynamical system. This definition has as its basic ingredients a state space whose points characterize the state of the system and a family of maps that determines the time evolution of states according to a dynamical law. The state space is comprised of the minimal set of variables that determines all properties of interest. To qualify as a dynamical system the family of maps must satisfy a composition rule to conform with the additive structure of time.