Prediction of limit cycles in mathematical models of biological oscillations

Three conjectures are given which predict the existence of unique stable limit cycle oscillations in a class of piecewise linear (PL) differential equations. The equations are appropriate to model biological or other complex systems in which there are switchlike interactions between the elements of the network. Methods are presented which can be used to develop mathematical models which are conjectured to display stable limit cycle oscillations, from qualitative experimental information about relative phases of activity in the dynamical systems. Several illustrative numerical examples are given, and one experimental example from neurobiology is discussed. Presented at the Society for Mathematical Biology Meeting, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, August 19–21, 1976.