The stability of a single-input, single-output, singleloop, linear, time-invariant system is related to the properties of its open-loop gain. The impulse response of the open-loop system may be of the form

where

is a nonnegative constant,

is integrable on

, and

<

. If the Nyquist diagram of the open-loop gain does not go through nor encircle the critical point, then the closed-loop system is inputoutput stable, in the several meanings explained in the paper.