Nonautonomous evolution equations and their attractors (Q1264783)

The authors study attractors of nonautonomous evolution equations of the form \[ u_t= A(t,u(t)),\quad u(\tau)= u_\tau,\quad t\geq\tau,\quad \tau\in \mathbb{R},\quad u_\tau\in E.\tag{1} \] Here \(E\) is a Banach space while \(A(\cdot,t)\) is defined on a time independent linear subspace \(D\subseteq E\) which is dense in \(E\). The requirements to be imposed on \(A(\cdot, t)\) are such that the arising theory applies to the following special cases: (a) the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation with almost periodic external force, (b) reaction diffusion systems of the form \[ u_t= \alpha\Delta u+ g(u,x,t)+ f(x,t) \] with \(g\), \(f\) almost periodic in \(t\), (c) dissipative hyperbolic equations based on almost periodic data. With (1) the author associates a ``process'', i.e. a family of mappings \(E(t,\tau)\), \(t\geq \tau\) which associates with \(u_\tau\in E\) the solution \(u(t)= E(t,\tau)u_\tau\) of (1) and satisfies \[ E(t,s) E(s,\tau)= E(t,\tau),\quad E(t,t)= I,\quad t\geq s\geq\tau.\tag{2} \] In order to take care of the above examples, the authors amplify this frame somewhat. They consider processes \(E_f(t,\tau)\), \(t\geq \tau\) which are labeled by a mapping \(f: F\to F\), with \(F\) a complete metric space. On \(F\) a semigroup \(T(s)\), \(s\geq 0\) is acting in such a way that \(T(s+ t)= T(s)T(t)\). The process \(E_f(t,\tau)\) is now assumed to satisfy \[ E_f(t+ s,\tau+ s)= E_{T(s)f}(t,\tau),\quad t\geq \tau,\quad s\geq 0.\tag{3} \] Based on (3), the authors define the semigroup \(S(t)\) on \(E\times F\) via \[ S(t)(u,f)= (E_f(t, 0)u,\;T(t)f),\quad t\geq 0.\tag{4} \] With \(S(t)\) on \(E\times F\) at hand, the authors introduce the usual concepts of attractor, absorbing set etc. Under the right assumptions on \(E_f\) and \(T(s)\), theorems then emerge which assert the existence of global attractors. This theory is then applied to the examples (a), (b), (c) above. It is here where certain amount of hard estimates come into play.