Dynamics of a non-autonomous ODE system occurring in coagulation theory (Q2427401): Difference between revisions

One of the questions currently commanding widespread attention is whether or not similarity occurs in the systems of differential equations modelling the kinetics of cluster growth. Similarity (or self-similar or self-preserving) behaviour means the existence of a universal function to which all solutions converge at large times after an appropriate scaling transformation. In this paper this question is considered for a particular type of cluster system, namely the Smoluchowski equation with Becker-Döring type interactors (also called addition model) with time dependent input of monomers. This work generalizes to the non-autonomous case a recent result of \textit{F. P. da Costa}, \textit{H. J. van Roessel} and \textit{J. A. D. Wattis} [Markov Process. Relat. Fields 12, No.~2, 367--398 (2006; Zbl 1136.82347)] and provides a rigorous derivation of formal results obtained by \textit{J. A. D. Wattis} [J. Phys. A, Math. Gen. 37, No.~32, 7823--7841 (2004; Zbl 1255.82034)]. The main part of the approach is the analysis of a twodimensional non-autonomous system obtained through an appropriate change of variables. This is achieved by the use of differential inequalities and methods of the qualitative theory. The results about the rate of convergence of solutions of the bi-dimensional system are fed into an integral formula representation for the solution \(s\) of the infinite-dimensional system which is then estimated by an adaptation of the method used previously by da Costa et al.