Counting equilibria of large complex systems by instability index

Abstract: We consider a nonlinear autonomous system of $N\gg 1$ degrees of freedom randomly coupled by both relaxational ('gradient') and non-relaxational ('solenoidal') random interactions. We show that with increased interaction strength such systems generically undergo an abrupt transition from a trivial phase portrait with a single stable equilibrium into a topologically non-trivial regime of 'absolute instability' where equilibria are on average exponentially abundant, but typically all of them are unstable, unless the dynamics is purely gradient. When interactions increase even further the stable equilibria eventually become on average exponentially abundant unless the interaction is purely solenoidal. We further calculate the mean proportion of equilibria which have a fixed fraction of unstable directions.