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.