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.     

Stability of dichotomies in difference equations with infinite delay

For delay difference equations with infinite delay we consider the notion of nonuniform exponential dichotomy. This includes the notion of uniform exponential dichotomy as a very special case. Our main aim is to establish a stable manifold theorem under sufficiently small nonlinear perturbations. We also establish the robustness of nonuniform exponential dichotomies under sufficiently small linear perturbations. Finally, we characterize the nonuniform exponential dichotomies in terms of strict Lyapunov sequences. In particular, we construct explicitly a strict Lyapunov sequence for each exponential dichotomy.     

Stable manifolds for nonuniform polynomial dichotomies

We establish the existence of smooth stable manifolds in Banach spaces for sufficiently small perturbations of a new type of dichotomy that we call nonuniform polynomial dichotomy. This new dichotomy is more restrictive in the “nonuniform part” but allow the “uniform part” to obey a polynomial law instead of an exponential (more restrictive) law. We consider two families of perturbations. For one of the families we obtain local Lipschitz stable manifolds and for the other family, assuming more restrictive conditions on the perturbations and its derivatives, we obtain C¹ global stable manifolds. Finally we present an example of a family of nonuniform polynomial dichotomies and apply our results to obtain stable manifolds for some perturbations of this family.     

Conjugacies and invariant manifolds via evolution semigroups

For a linear evolution family with a nonuniformly hyperbolic behavior, we give simple proofs of the existence of topological conjugacies and stable invariant manifolds under sufficiently small perturbations. The proofs are obtained via evolution semigroups, which allows us to pass from the original nonautonomous nonuni-formly hyperbolic dynamics to one that is autonomous and uniformly hyperbolic.     

Robustness of nonuniform exponential dichotomies in Banach spaces

We give conditions for the robustness of nonuniform exponential dichotomies in Banach spaces, in the sense that the existence of an exponential dichotomy for a given linear equation x^′=A(t)x persists under a sufficiently small linear perturbation. We also establish the continuous dependence with the perturbation of the constants in the notion of dichotomy and of the “angles” between the stable and unstable subspaces. Our proofs exhibit (implicitly) the exponential dichotomies of the perturbed equations in terms of fixed points of appropriate contractions. We emphasize that we do not need the notion of admissibility (of bounded nonlinear perturbations). We also obtain related robustness results in the case of nonuniform exponential contractions. In addition, we establish an appropriate version of robustness for nonautonomous dynamical systems with discrete time.     

Stable invariant manifolds for delay equations with piecewise constant argument

We construct smooth stable invariant manifolds for a class of delay equations with piecewise constant delay, for any sufficiently small perturbation of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy. We build on former work for perturbations of a uniform exponential dichotomy, also for delay equations with piecewise constant delay. These equations can be described as delay equations with an impulsive behavior of the derivative, such that at certain times the derivative changes abruptly.     

Conjugacies for linear and nonlinear perturbations of nonuniform behavior

We construct topological conjugacies between linear and nonlinear evolution operators that admit either a nonuniform exponential contraction or a nonuniform exponential dichotomy. We consider evolution operators defined by nonautonomous differential equations x^′=A(t)x+f(t,x) in a Banach space. The conjugacies are obtained by first considering sufficiently small linear and nonlinear perturbations of linear equations x^′=A(t)x. In the case of linear perturbations, we construct in a more or less explicit manner topological conjugacies between the two linear flows. In the case of nonlinear perturbations, we obtain a version of the Grobman-Hartman theorem for nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamics. Furthermore, all the conjugacies that we construct are locally Hölder continuous provided that the vectors fields are of class C¹. As a byproduct of our approach, we give conditions for the robustness of strong nonuniform exponential behavior, in the sense that under sufficiently small perturbations the structure determined by the stable and unstable bundles persists up to small variations. We also show that the constants determining the nonuniform exponential contraction or nonuniform exponential dichotomy vary continuously with the perturbation. All the results are obtained in Banach spaces.     

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.     

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.     

Parameter dependence of stable manifolds under nonuniform hyperbolicity

For a nonautonomous linear equation v^′=A(t)v in a Banach space with a nonuniform exponential dichotomy, we show that the nonlinear equation v^′=A(t)v+f(t,v,λ) has stable invariant manifolds Vλ which are Lipschitz in the parameter λ provided that f is a sufficiently small Lipschitz perturbation. Since any linear equation with nonzero Lyapunov exponents has a nonuniform exponential dichotomy, the above assumption is very general. We emphasize that passing from a classical uniform exponential dichotomy to a general nonuniform exponential dichotomy requires a substantially new approach.     

Polynomial contractions and Lyapunov regularity

The purpose of this note is twofold: to introduce the notion of polynomial contraction for a linear nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time, and to show that it persists under sufficiently small linear and nonlinear perturbations. The notion of polynomial contraction mimics the notion of exponential contraction, but with the exponential decay replaced by a polynomial decay. We show that this behavior is exhibited by a large class of dynamics, by giving necessary conditions in terms of “polynomial” Lyapunov exponents. Finally, we establish the persistence of the asymptotic stability of a polynomial contraction under sufficiently small linear and nonlinear perturbations. We also consider the case of nonuniform polynomial contractions, for which the Lyapunov stability is not uniform.     

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.     

Admissibility on the half line for evolution families

For an arbitrary evolution family, we consider the notion of an exponential dichotomy with respect to a family of norms and characterize it completely in terms of the admissibility of bounded solutions, that is, the existence of a unique bounded solution for each bounded perturbation. In particular, by considering a family of Lyapunov norms, we recover the notion of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy. As a nontrivial application of the characterization, we establish the robustness of the notion of an exponential dichotomy with respect to a family of norms under sufficiently small Lipschitz and C ¹ parameterized perturbations. Moreover, we establish the optimal regularity of the dependence on the parameter of the projections onto the stable spaces of the perturbation.     

Lyapunov regularity of impulsive differential equations

For linear impulsive differential equations, we give a simple criterion for the existence of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy, which includes uniform exponential dichotomies as a very special case. For this we introduce the notion of Lyapunov regularity for a linear impulsive differential equation, in terms of the so-called regularity coefficient. The theory is then used to show that if the Lyapunov exponents are nonzero, then there is a nonuniform exponential behavior, which can be expressed in terms of the Lyapunov exponents of the differential equation and of the regularity coefficient. We also consider the particular case of nonuniform exponential contractions when there are only negative Lyapunov exponents. Having this relation in mind, it is also of interest to provide alternative characterizations of Lyapunov regularity, and particularly to obtain sharp lower and upper bound for the regularity coefficient. In particular, we obtain bounds expressed in terms of the matrices defining the impulsive linear system, and we obtain characterizations in terms of the exponential growth rate of volumes. In addition we establish the persistence of the stability of a linear impulsive differential equation under sufficiently small nonlinear perturbations.     

Smooth robustness of parameterized perturbations of exponential dichotomies

We establish the robustness of nonuniform exponential dichotomies in Banach spaces, under sufficiently small C¹-parameterized perturbations. Moreover, we show that the stable and unstable subspaces of the exponential dichotomies obtained from the perturbation are also of class C¹ on the parameter, thus yielding an optimal smoothness.     

Robustness of nonuniform behavior for discrete dynamics

For a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time obtained from the product of linear operators, we establish the robustness of a nonuniform dichotomy, in the sense that the existence of such a dichotomy for a given linear cocycle persists under sufficiently small linear perturbations. The robustness result for the nonuniform contractions is also established.     

Robustness via Lyapunov functions

For nonautonomous linear equations x^′=A(t)x, we give a complete characterization of nonuniform exponential dichotomies in terms of strict quadratic Lyapunov functions. Nonuniform exponential dichotomies include as a very special case uniform exponential dichotomies. In particular, we construct explicitly strict Lyapunov functions for each exponential dichotomy. As a nontrivial application, we establish in a simple and direct manner the robustness of nonuniform exponential dichotomies under sufficiently small linear perturbations. This represents a considerable simplification of former work.     

Stable manifolds for delay equations and parameter dependence

We establish the existence of Lipschitz stable invariant manifolds for semiflows generated by a delay equation x^′=L(t)_xt+f(t,_xt,λ)$x^{\prime }=L\left(t\right)x_t+f(t,x_t,\lambda )$, assuming that the linear equation x^′=L(t)_xt$x^{\prime }=L\left(t\right)x_t$ admits a nonuniform exponential dichotomy and that f$f$ is a sufficiently small Lipschitz perturbation. We also show that the stable invariant manifolds are Lipschitz in the parameter λ$\lambda$.     

Nonuniform dichotomic behavior: Lipschitz invariant manifolds for ODEs

We obtain global and local theorems on the existence of invariant manifolds for perturbations of nonautonomous linear differential equations assuming a very general form of dichotomic behavior for the linear equation. Besides some new situations that are far from the hyperbolic setting, our results include, and sometimes improve, some known stable manifold theorems.     

Dichotomy spectra and Morse decompositions of linear nonautonomous differential equations

Recently, the existence of Morse decompositions for nonautonomous dynamical systems was shown for three different time domains: the past, the future and—in the linear case—the entire time. In this article, notions of exponential dichotomy are discussed with respect to the three time domains. It is shown that an exponential dichotomy gives rise to an attractor-repeller pair in the projective space, which is a building block of a Morse decomposition. Moreover, based on the notions of exponential dichotomy, dichotomy spectra are introduced, and it is proved that the corresponding spectral manifolds lead to Morse decompositions in the projective space.