Theory of Impulsive Differential Equations

Book excerpt: Many evolution processes are characterized by the fact that at certain moments of time they experience a change of state abruptly. These processes are subject to short-term perturbations whose duration is negligible in comparison with the duration of the process. Consequently, it is natural to assume that these perturbations act instantaneously, that is, in the form of impulses. It is known, for example, that many biological phenomena involving thresholds, bursting rhythm models in medicine and biology, optimal control models in economics, pharmacokinetics and frequency modulated systems, do exhibit impulsive effects. Thus impulsive differential equations, that is, differential equations involving impulse effects, appear as a natural description of observed evolution phenomena of several real world problems.