Stable Manifolds and Nonuniform Hyperbolicity: Optimal Estimates

We establish the existence of invariant stable manifolds for C ¹ perturbations of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy with an arbitrary nonuniform part. We consider the general case of sequences of maps, which corresponds to a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time. We also obtain optimal estimates for the decay of trajectories along the stable manifolds. The optimal C ¹ smoothness of the invariant manifolds is obtained using an invariant family of cones.     

Center manifolds and optimal estimates

For sufficiently small perturbations of a nonuniform exponential trichotomy, we establish the existence of $C^k$ invariant center manifolds. We consider the general case of sequences of maps, which corresponds to a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time. In particular, we obtain optimal estimates for the decay of all derivatives along the trajectories on the center manifolds.     

Center manifolds for nonuniformly partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms

We establish the existence of smooth invariant center manifolds for the nonuniformly partially hyperbolic trajectories of a diffeomorphism in a Banach space. This means that the differentials of the diffeomorphism along the trajectory admit a nonuniform exponential trichotomy. We also consider the more general case of sequences of diffeomorphisms, which corresponds to a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time. In addition, we obtain an optimal regularity for the center manifolds: if the diffeomorphisms are of class C^k then the manifolds are also of class C^k. As a byproduct of our approach we obtain an exponential control not only for the trajectories on the center manifolds, but also for their derivatives up to order k.     

A Grobman-Hartman theorem for nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamics

We establish a version of the Grobman-Hartman theorem in Banach spaces for nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamics. We also consider the case of sequences of maps, which corresponds to a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time. More precisely, we consider sequences of Lipschitz maps Am+fm such that the linear parts Am admit a nonuniform exponential dichotomy, and we establish the existence of a unique sequence of topological conjugacies between the maps Am+fm and Am. Furthermore, we show that the conjugacies are Hölder continuous, with Hölder exponent determined by the ratios of Lyapunov exponents with the same sign. To the best of our knowledge this statement appeared nowhere before in the published literature, even in the particular case of uniform exponential dichotomies, although some experts claim that it is well known in this case. We are also interested in the dependence of the conjugacies on the perturbations fm: we show that it is Hölder continuous, with the same Hölder exponent as the one for the conjugacies. We emphasize that the additional work required to consider the case of nonuniform exponential dichotomies is substantial. In particular, we need to consider several additional Lyapunov norms.     

Integral stable manifolds in Banach spaces

We establish the existence of smooth integral stable manifoldsfor sufficiently small perturbations of nonuniform exponentialdichotomies in Banach spaces. We also consider the case of anonautonomous dynamics given by a sequence of C¹ maps. The optimalsmoothness of the manifolds is obtained at the same time astheir existence, using a convenient lemma of Henry. Furthermore,we obtain not only the exponential decay of the dynamics alongthe stable manifolds, but also of its derivative. In addition,we give a characterization of the stable manifolds in termsof the maximal exponential growth rate that is allowed, we discusshow the manifolds vary with the perturbations, and we discusstheir equivariance with respect to a sequence of linear operators.     

Smooth center manifolds for nonuniformly partially hyperbolic trajectories

We establish the existence of unique smooth center manifolds for ordinary differential equations v^′=A(t)v+f(t,v) in Banach spaces, assuming that v^′=A(t)v admits a nonuniform exponential trichotomy. This allows us to show the existence of unique smooth center manifolds for the nonuniformly partially hyperbolic trajectories. In addition, we prove that the center manifolds are as regular as the vector field. Our proof of the Ck smoothness of the manifolds uses a single fixed point problem in an appropriate complete metric space. To the best of our knowledge we establish in this paper the first smooth center manifold theorem in the nonuniform setting.     

Center manifolds for difference equations—smooth parameter dependence

For sufficiently small C¹ perturbations of (nonautonomous) linear difference equations with a nonuniform exponential trichotomy, we establish the existence of center manifolds with the optimal C¹ regularity. We also consider the case of parameter-dependent perturbations and we obtain the C¹ dependence of the center manifolds on the parameter. In addition, we consider arbitrary growth rates with the usual exponential estimates of the form in the notion of exponential trichotomy replaced by where ρ is now an arbitrary function. The proof of the regularity, both of the center manifold and of its dependence, on the parameter is based on the fiber contraction principle. The most technical part of the argument concerns the continuity of the fiber contraction that essentially needs a direct argument.     

Ergodic properties for some non-expanding non-reversible systems

We study several properties of invariant measures obtained from preimages, for non-invertible maps on fractal sets which model non-reversible dynamical systems. We give two ways to describe the distribution of all preimages for endomorphisms which are not necessarily expanding on a basic set Λ. We give a topological dynamics condition which guarantees that the corresponding measures converge to a unique conformal ergodic borelian measure; this helps in estimating the unstable dimension a.e. with respect to this measure with the help of Lyapunov exponents. When there exist negative Lyapunov exponents of this limit measure, we study the conditional probabilities induced on the non-uniform local stable manifolds by the limit measure, and also its pointwise dimension on stable manifolds.     

Quadratic Lyapunov functions and nonuniform exponential dichotomies

For nonautonomous linear equations x^′=A(t)x, we show how to characterize completely nonuniform exponential dichotomies using quadratic Lyapunov functions. The characterization can be expressed in terms of inequalities between matrices. In particular, we obtain converse theorems, by constructing explicitly quadratic Lyapunov functions for each nonuniform exponential dichotomy. We note that the nonuniform exponential dichotomies include as a very special case (uniform) exponential dichotomies. In particular, we recover in a very simple manner a complete characterization of uniform exponential dichotomies in terms of quadratic Lyapunov functions. We emphasize that our approach is new even in the uniform case.Furthermore, we show that the instability of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy persists under sufficiently small perturbations. The proof uses quadratic Lyapunov functions, and in particular avoids the use of invariant unstable manifolds which, to the best of our knowledge, are not known to exist in this general setting.     

Dynamical systems on lattices with decaying interaction I: A functional analysis framework

We consider weakly coupled map lattices with a decaying interaction. That is, we consider systems which consist of a phase space at every site such that the dynamics at a site is little affected by the dynamics at far away sites.We develop a functional analysis framework which formulates quantitatively the decay of the interaction and is able to deal with lattices such that the sites are manifolds. This framework is very well suited to study systematically invariant objects. One obtains that the invariant objects are essentially local.We use this framework to prove a stable manifold theorem and show that the manifolds are as smooth as the maps and have decay properties (i.e. the derivatives of one of the coordinates of the manifold with respect to the coordinates at far away sites are small). Other applications of the framework are the study of the structural stability of maps with decay close to uncoupled possessing hyperbolic sets and the decay properties of the invariant manifolds of their hyperbolic sets, in the companion paper by Fontich et al. (2011) [10].     

Center manifolds for impulsive equations under nonuniform hyperbolicity

We establish the existence of smooth center manifolds under sufficiently small perturbations of an impulsive linear equation. In particular, we obtain the C¹ smoothness of the manifolds outside the jumping times. We emphasize that we consider the general case of nonautonomous equations for which the linear part has a nonuniform exponential trichotomy.     

Stability in delay difference equations with nonuniform exponential behavior

We study the stability under perturbations for delay difference equations in Banach spaces. Namely, we establish the (nonuniform) stability of linear nonuniform exponential contractions under sufficiently small perturbations. We also obtain a stable manifold theorem for perturbations of linear delay difference equations admitting a nonuniform exponential dichotomy, and show that the stable manifolds are Lipschitz in the perturbation.     

Nonuniform exponential contractions and Lyapunov sequences

For a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time obtained from the product of linear operators, we show that a nonuniform exponential contraction can be completely characterized in terms of what we call strict Lyapunov sequences. We note that nonuniform exponential contractions include as a very particular case the uniform exponential contractions that correspond to have a uniform asymptotic stability of the dynamics. We also obtain “inverse theorems” that give explicitly strict Lyapunov sequences for each nonuniform exponential contraction. Essentially, the Lyapunov sequences are obtained in terms of what are usually called Lyapunov norms, that is, norms with respect to which the behavior of a nonuniform exponential contraction becomes uniform. We also show how the characterization of nonuniform exponential contractions in terms of quadratic Lyapunov sequences can be used to establish in a very simple manner the persistence of the asymptotic stability of a nonuniform exponential contraction under sufficiently small linear or nonlinear perturbations. Moreover, we describe an appropriate version of our results in the context of ergodic theory showing that the existence of an eventually strict Lyapunov function implies that all Lyapunov exponents are negative almost everywhere.     

Stability theory and Lyapunov regularity

We establish the stability under perturbations of the dynamics defined by a sequence of linear maps that may exhibit both nonuniform exponential contraction and expansion. This means that the constants determining the exponential behavior may increase exponentially as time approaches infinity. In particular, we establish the stability under perturbations of a nonuniform exponential contraction under appropriate conditions that are much more general than uniform asymptotic stability. The conditions are expressed in terms of the so-called regularity coefficient, which is an essential element of the theory of Lyapunov regularity developed by Lyapunov himself. We also obtain sharp lower and upper bounds for the regularity coefficient, thus allowing the application of our results to many concrete dynamics. It turns out that, using the theory of Lyapunov regularity, we can show that the nonuniform exponential behavior is ubiquitous, contrarily to what happens with the uniform exponential behavior that although robust is much less common. We also consider the case of infinite-dimensional systems.     

Stable manifolds for nonautonomous equations without exponential dichotomy

We consider nonautonomous ordinary differential equations v^′=A(t)v in Banach spaces and, under fairly general assumptions, we show that for any sufficiently small perturbation f there exists a stable invariant manifold for the perturbed equation v^′=A(t)v+f(t,v), which corresponds to the set of negative Lyapunov exponents of the original linear equation. The main assumption is the existence of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy with a small nonuniformity, i.e., a small deviation from the classical notion of (uniform) exponential dichotomy. In fact, we showed that essentially any linear equation v^′=A(t)v admits a nonuniform exponential dichotomy and thus, the above assumption only concerns the smallness of the nonuniformity of the dichotomy. This smallness is a rather common phenomenon at least from the point of view of ergodic theory: almost all linear variational equations obtained from a measure-preserving flow admit a nonuniform exponential dichotomy with arbitrarily small nonuniformity. We emphasize that we do not need to assume the existence of a uniform exponential dichotomy and that we never require the nonuniformity to be arbitrarily small, only sufficiently small. Our approach is related to the notion of Lyapunov regularity, which goes back to Lyapunov himself although it is apparently somewhat forgotten today in the theory of differential equations.     

Lyapunov functions for trichotomies with growth rates

We consider linear equations x^′=A(t)x that may exhibit stable, unstable and central behaviors in different directions, with respect to arbitrary asymptotic rates ecρ(t) determined by a function ρ(t). For example, the usual exponential behavior with ρ(t)=t is included as a very special case, and when ρ(t)=logt we obtain a polynomial behavior. We emphasize that we also consider the general case of nonuniform exponential behavior, which corresponds to the existence of what we call a ρ-nonuniform exponential trichotomy. This is known to occur in a large class of nonautonomous linear equations. Our main objective is to give a complete characterization in terms of strict Lyapunov functions of the linear equations admitting a ρ-nonuniform exponential trichotomy. This includes criteria for the existence of a ρ-nonuniform exponential trichotomy, as well as inverse theorems providing explicit strict Lyapunov functions for each given exponential trichotomy. In the particular case of quadratic Lyapunov functions we show that the existence of strict Lyapunov sequences can be deduced from more algebraic relations between the quadratic forms defining the Lyapunov functions. As an application of the characterization of nonuniform exponential trichotomies in terms of strict Lyapunov functions, we establish the robustness of ρ-nonuniform exponential trichotomies under sufficiently small linear perturbations. We emphasize that in comparison with former works, our proof of the robustness is much simpler even when ρ(t)=t.     

Center manifolds under nonuniform hyperbolicity - maximal regularity

We establish the existence of (invariant) center manifolds with maximal Cr regularity for a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time. We consider the general case of perturbations of a nonuniform exponential trichotomy. Our proof uses the fiber contraction principle and allows linear perturbations without any further effort.     

Nonlinear perturbations of nonuniform exponential dichotomy on measure chains

This paper focuses on nonlinear perturbations of flows in Banach spaces, corresponding to a nonautonomous dynamical system on measure chains admitting a nonuniform exponential dichotomy. We first define the nonuniform exponential dichotomy of linear nonuniformly hyperbolic systems on measure chains, then establish a new version of the Grobman-Hartman theorem for nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamics on measure chains with the help of nonuniform exponential dichotomies. Moreover, we also construct stable invariant manifolds for sufficiently small nonlinear perturbations of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy. In particular, it is shown that the stable invariant manifolds are Lipschitz in the initial values provided that the nonlinear perturbation is a sufficiently small Lipschitz perturbation.     

Dynamical systems on lattices with decaying interaction II: Hyperbolic sets and their invariant manifolds

This is the second part of the work devoted to the study of maps with decay in lattices. Here we apply the general theory developed in Fontich et al. (2011) [3] to the study of hyperbolic sets. In particular, we establish that any close enough perturbation with decay of an uncoupled lattice map with a hyperbolic set has also a hyperbolic set, with dynamics on the hyperbolic set conjugated to the corresponding of the uncoupled map. We also describe how the decay properties of the maps are inherited by the corresponding invariant manifolds.     

Localized Stable Manifolds for Whiskered Tori in Coupled Map Lattices with Decaying Interaction

In this paper we consider lattice systems coupled by local interactions. We prove invariant manifold theorems for whiskered tori (we recall that whiskered tori are quasi-periodic solutions with exponentially contracting and expanding directions in the linearized system). The invariant manifolds we construct generalize the usual (strong) (un)stable manifolds and allow us to consider also non-resonant manifolds. We show that if the whiskered tori are localized near a collection of specific sites, then so are the invariant manifolds. We recall that the existence of localized whiskered tori has recently been proven for symplectic maps and flows in Fontich et al. (J Diff Equ, 2012), but our results do not need that the systems are symplectic. For simplicity we will present first the main results for maps, but we will show that the result for maps imply the results for flows. It is also true that the results for flows can be proved directly following the same ideas.