On Topological Properties of the Set of Stabilizing Feedback Gains

This work presents a fairly complete account on various topological and metrical aspects of feedback stabilization for single-input-single-output (SISO) continuous and discrete time linear-time-invariant (LTI) systems. In particular, we prove that the set of stabilizing output feedback gains for a SISO system with n states has at most lceilfracn2rceil connected components. Furthermore, our analysis yields an algorithm for determining intervals of stabilizing gains for general continuous and discrete LIT systems; the proposed algorithm also computes the number of unstable roots in each unstable interval. Along the way, we also make a number of observations on the set of stabilizing state feedback gains for MIMO systems.