An inclusion principle for hereditary systems

Given two hereditary dynamic systems having different dimensions, the conditions are provided under which a part of the motion of the larger system is reproduced by the smaller system, that is, the larger system “includes” the smaller one. The conditions for inclusion are useful in applying the concept of vector Liapunov functions to stability analysis of systems composed of overlapping subsystems. By expanding the systems into a larger space the overlapping subsystems appear as disjoint and standard methods can be used to conclude stability of the expanded system. Under the inclusion conditions, stability of the expansion implies stability of the original system. An example is provided to show stability where the standard disjoint decompositions fail.