Singular index pairs (Q1301774)

The authors introduce the concept of singular perturbation into the Conley index theory. The main idea of the singular perturbation theory is to determine suitable conditions on the equation \[ \dot x=f(x,\varepsilon)= f_0(x)+\sum_{i=1}^m\varepsilon^i f_i(x)+o(\varepsilon^m), \] with \(x\in\mathbb R^n\), at the parameter \(\varepsilon=0\) (where solutions are supposed to be well-known) in order to get some useful information on solutions for \(\varepsilon >0\) small enough. To this reason the authors introduce the notions of singular isolating neighborhood and singular index pair at \(\varepsilon=0\). The authors provide characterizations of singular neighborhoods and index pairs basing on the concepts of slow exit and entrance points, and a related theorem by \textit{C. Conley} [in: Global theory of dynamical systems, Proc. int. Conf., Evanston/Ill. 1979, Lect. Notes Math. 819, 65-89 (1980; Zbl 0469.58014)]. The theorems are illustrated by applications to results on periodic and heteroclinic orbits of some planar systems, and traveling wave solutions to the Nagumo equations. As the authors write, the obtained results are classical and are included only to indicate how the theorems can be applied; more serious applications will be presented in other papers.