Volume: 55 • Number: 7 • Pages: 573-577

This paper studies the relations between the local minima of a cost function f and the stable equilibria of the gradient descent flow of f. In particular, it is shown that, under the assumption that f is real analytic, local minimality is necessary and sufficient for stability. Under the weaker assumption that f is indefinitely continuously differentiable, local minimality is neither necessary nor sufficient for stability. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.