Nonlinear Iwasawa decomposition of control flows (Q2455007)

On a differentiable manifold \(M\) with a Riemannian metric, it is possible to distinguish those elements of the group of diffeomorphims \(\text{Diff}(M)\) that preserve the metric -- namely the group \(I(M)\) of isometries of \(M\). In general, \(\text{Diff}(M)\) is infinite-dimensional while \(I(M)\) is finite-dimensional and carres geometric and topological properties of \(M\). This paper considers factorization of a control flow \(\varphi_t: M\to M\) (a one-parameter family of diffeomorphisms) into a component \(\theta_t\) that lies in the finite-dimensional group of isometries and another component (the remainder \(\rho_t\)) that fixes a given point of \(M\) and -- via the derivative -- codifies the long term behavior of the system via its Lyapunov exponents. Such a factorization exists provided certain technical conditions on the vector fields associated with the control flow are met, or that the manifold \(M\) has constant curvature. It is worth noting that this decomposition separates the characteristic asymptotic parameters (Lyapunov exponents and rotation numbers) so that each appears in one component of the decomposition. The authors refer to the decomposition as ``nonlinear Iwasawa'' by analogy with the unique factorization of a matrix as the product of an orthogonal matrix and an upper triangular matrix -- the product of an isometry with a matrix having contraction or expansion terms. With additional assumptions (restrictions on the vector field associated with the control flow, or assuming that \(M\) is flat), the remainder \(\rho_t\) can be decomposed as the composition of an affine transformulation \(\psi_t\) with a new remainder \(\overline\rho_t\), where \(\overline\rho_t\) is again a diffeomorphism that fixes a given point, but whose derivative with respect to the space parameter is the identity.