A Necessary and Sufficient Condition for a Linear Differential System to be Strongly Monotone

In order to present the results of this note, we begin withsome definitions. Consider a differential system formula] where IR is an open interval, and f(t, x), (t, x)IxRⁿ, is acontinuous vector function with continuous first derivativesf_r/x_s, r, s=1, 2, ..., n. Let D_xf(t, x), (t, x)IxRⁿ, denote the Jacobi matrix of f(t,x), with respect to the variables x₁, ..., x_n. Let x(t, t₀,x₀), tI(t₀, x₀) denote the maximal solution of the system (1)through the point (t₀, x₀)IxRⁿ. For two vectors x, yRⁿ, we use the notations x>y and x>>yaccording to the following definitions: formula] An nxn matrix A=(a_rs) is called reducible if n2 and there existsa partition formula] (p1, q1, p+q=n) such that formula] The matrix A is called irreducible if n=1, or if n2 and A isnot reducible. The system (1) is called strongly monotone if for any t₀I, x₁,x₂Rⁿ formula] holds for all t>t₀ as long as both solutions x(t, t₀, x_i),i=1, 2, are defined. The system is called cooperative if forall (t, x)IxRⁿ the off-diagonal elements of the nxn matrix D_xf(t,x) are nonnegative. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification34A30, 34C99.