getDiscreteStability: Analyse the stability of mizer's numerical time step

In mizer: Dynamic Multi-Species Size Spectrum Modelling

Analyse the stability of mizer's numerical time step

Description

Computes the eigenvalues \mu_i of the linearised one-step-ahead map at the steady state stored in params@initial_n, for a given step size dt. These describe how mizer's numerical scheme, rather than the model, behaves near the steady state: the map does not amplify perturbations when the spectral radius \max_i|\mu_i| is less than 1.

Usage

getDiscreteStability(params, effort = params@initial_effort, h = 1e-04, dt = 1)

Arguments

params	A MizerParams object whose initial_n holds the steady state to analyse. Typically the output of findSteadyState().
effort	The fishing effort to use. By default the initial effort stored in params.
h	Relative step size for centred finite differences. Default 1e-4. The result should not depend on this choice. If it does, the dynamics are not smooth at the state being analysed — see the section below.
dt	The time step size of the one-step map. Default 1.

Details

This is the numerical counterpart of getStability(), which analyses the model itself and involves no time step at all. Use getStability() to ask whether the steady state of the model is stable, and this function to ask what mizer's solver does at a particular dt. The two can disagree, and that disagreement is the point: the implicit transport solve damps oscillations artificially, so a physically unstable steady state can have a spectral radius below 1 at a large dt, and the simulation then sits at a state the model does not actually hold.

The map that is linearised

One step is what project() takes with method = "euler": the rates are evaluated at the state at the start of the step, and the resulting transport problem is solved implicitly,

A(N^t, n_{pp}^t)\,N^{t+1} = S(N^t, n_{pp}^t),

with the same project_n_loop() C++ Thomas solver and the same spatial scheme (second_order_w()) as the regular dynamics.

Because the rates are evaluated at the input state, the step is not fully implicit, and the discrete eigenvalues therefore cannot be converted into continuous-time eigenvalues by any exact algebraic relation. That conversion is what getStability() avoids by differentiating the rates of change themselves.

The resource is advanced by the model's own resource_dynamics function, the one project() calls. Nothing is substituted for it: the map that is differentiated here reproduces a single project(method = "euler") step exactly, which is what makes the spectral radius a statement about mizer's solver rather than about a nearby scheme.

Value

A named list with the following components:

discrete_eigenvalues

Complex vector of the eigenvalues \mu_i of the one-step map, sorted by decreasing modulus.

spectral_radius

\max_i|\mu_i|. Less than 1 means the numerical scheme is stable at this dt.

stable

Logical: TRUE when spectral_radius < 1.

dt

The step size the map was evaluated at.

n_active

Dimension of the Jacobian.

leading_eigenvectors

The eigenvectors of the two largest-modulus eigenvalues, in the same shape as for getStability().

params

The validated params object the analysis was made at.

Requires smooth dynamics

The finite-difference Jacobian is only meaningful if the rates of change are differentiable at N^*. A custom rate function registered with setRateFunction() that jumps as a function of the abundances breaks this in two ways. If the state sits on the switching threshold, some perturbations straddle it and pick up the jump, and the reported eigenvalues then vary wildly with h. If the state is near but not on the threshold, no perturbation crosses it, and the function silently returns the stability of the single branch the state happens to lie on — which can read as stable for a model whose simulations never settle.

Re-running with a different h is the cheapest check: if the answer moves, do not trust it. See Discontinuous rate functions.

See Also

getStability(), findSteadyState()

mizer documentation built on Aug. 24, 2026, 9:08 a.m.