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.     

Admissibility and nonuniform polynomial dichotomies

For a general one-sided nonautonomous dynamics defined by a sequence of linear operators, we consider the notion of a polynomial dichotomy with respect to a sequence of norms and we characterize it completely in terms of the admissibility of bounded solutions. As a nontrivial application, we establish the robustness of the notion of a nonuniform polynomial dichotomy.     

Robustness of general dichotomies

For a linear equation v^′=A(t)v we consider general dichotomies that may exhibit stable and unstable behaviors with respect to arbitrary asymptotic rates ecρ(t) for some function ρ(t). This includes as a special case the usual exponential behavior when ρ(t)=t. We also consider the general case of nonuniform exponential dichotomies. We establish the robustness of the exponential dichotomies in Banach spaces, in the sense that the existence of an exponential dichotomy for a given linear equation persists under sufficiently small linear perturbations. We also establish the continuous dependence with the perturbation of the constants in the notion of dichotomy.     

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.     

A note on the dichotomy spectrum

In many ways, exponential dichotomies are an appropriate hyperbolicity notion for nonautonomous linear differential or difference equations. The corresponding dichotomy spectrum generalizes the classical set of eigenvalues or Floquet multipliers and is therefore of eminent importance in a stability theory for explicitly time-dependent systems, as well as to establish a geometric theory of nonautonomous problems with ingredients like invariant manifolds and normal forms, or to deduce continuation and bifurcation techniques.

In this note, we derive some invariance and perturbation properties of the dichotomy spectrum for nonautonomous linear difference equations in Banach spaces. They easily follow from the observation that the dichotomy spectrum is strongly related to a weighted shift operator on an ambient sequence space.     

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.     

A characterization of generalized exponential dichotomy

This paper studies some important properties of the notion generalized exponential dichotomy. A new notion called generalized bounded growth is introduced to describe the characterization of generalized exponential dichotomy. The relations between generalized bounded growth and generalized exponential dichotomy are established.     

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.     

Robustness of exponential dichotomies in mean

We consider the notion of an exponential dichotomy in mean, in which the exponential behavior in the classical notion of an exponential dichotomy is replaced by the much weaker requirement that the same happens in mean with respect to some probability measure. This includes as a special case any linear cocycle over a measure-preserving flow with nonzero Lyapunov exponents almost everywhere, such as the geodesic flow on a compact manifold of negative curvature. Our main aim is to show that the exponential behavior in mean is robust, in the sense that it persists under sufficiently small linear perturbations.     

Robust nonuniform dichotomies and parameter dependence

We establish the robustness of linear cocycles with an exponential dichotomy, under sufficiently small Lipschitz perturbations, in the sense that the existence of an exponential dichotomy for a given cocycle persists under these perturbations. We consider cocycles in Banach spaces, as well as the general case of nonuniform exponential dichotomies, and also the general case of an exponential behavior ecρ(n), given by an arbitrary sequence ρ(n) including the usual exponential behavior ρ(n)=n as a very special case. Moreover, we show that the projections of the exponential dichotomies obtained from the perturbation vary continuously with the parameter, and in fact that they are locally Lipschitz on finite-dimensional parameters.     

Robust exponential attractors for singularly perturbed Hodgkin-Huxley equations

Here we consider a singular perturbation of the Hodgkin-Huxley system which is derived from the Lieberstein's model. We study the associated dynamical system on a suitable bounded phase space, when the perturbation parameter ε (i.e., the axon specific inductance) is sufficiently small. We prove the existence of bounded absorbing sets as well as of smooth attracting sets. We deduce the existence of a smooth global attractor Aε. Finally we prove the main result, that is, the existence of a family of exponential attractors {Eε} which is Hölder continuous with respect to ε.     

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.     

On bounded solutions of ordinary nonlinear differential equations of order <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>

To prove the existence and uniqueness (or only the existence) of a bounded solution of a weakly nonlinear differential equation of the nth order, we use both the contraction mapping principle and the Tikhonov fixed-point theorem. We obtain an important qualitative estimate for the smallness of a nonlinear perturbation preserving the basic characteristics of the behavior of a linear equation (absolute stability or exponential dichotomy) under the passage to the nonlinear equation.     

Systems of differential equations with periodic coefficients

We consider linear systems of differential equations with periodic coefficients. We prove the solvability of nonhomogeneous systems in the Sobolev space W ₂ ¹ (R) and establish estimates for the solutions. This result implies a perturbation theorem for the exponential dichotomy of systems of differential equations with periodic coefficients.     

Nonuniform exponential dichotomies and Lyapunov functions

For the nonautonomous dynamics defined by a sequence of bounded linear operators acting on an arbitrary Hilbert space, we obtain a characterization of the notion of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy in terms of quadratic Lyapunov sequences. We emphasize that, in sharp contrast with previous results, we consider the general case of possibly noninvertible linear operators, thus requiring only the invertibility along the unstable direction. As an application, we give a simple proof of the robustness of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy under sufficiently small linear perturbations.     

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.     

Lyapunov sequences for exponential dichotomies

For a linear nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time, we study the relation between nonuniform exponential dichotomies and strict Lyapunov sequences. Given such a sequence, we obtain the stable and unstable subspaces from the intersection of the images and preimages of the cones defined by each element of the sequence. The main difficulty is to extract some information about the angles between the stable and unstable subspaces (or some appropriate notion in the case of Banach spaces) from the Lyapunov sequence. In particular, for a large class of nonuniform exponential dichotomies we give a complete characterization in terms of strict quadratic Lyapunov sequences, that is, strict Lyapunov sequences defined by quadratic forms. We also construct explicitly families of strict Lyapunov sequences for each nonuniform exponential dichotomy, in terms of Lyapunov norms.     

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.