What is the mathematical mechanism for overdamping?

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When something overdamps, it is allegedly an exponential curve. But, the differential equation for harmonic oscillators is

$m y''+k y'+ay = 0$ with the damping coefficient as $ \lambda = a/(2m)$. So, what conditions of these parameters some how cause 0 oscillation at all? Because I thought that in the real world there is always going to be some small oscillation and that it's only an approximation to assume otherwise.

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The oscillator is overdamped if the characteristic polynomial has only real roots, i.e. $k^2 - 4 a m \ge 0$. To the extent that the "real world" is modelled by this differential equations, there will then be no oscillation: you can make $y$ overshoot $0$ with an appropriate initial condition, but it won't cross $0$ again.

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