The Sacker-Sell problem in the quasiperiodic case (Q1918997)

Consider the linear differential system (1) \(\dot x=A(t)x\), where \(A(t)\) is a smooth \(n\times n\)-matrix function which is quasiperiodic with frequency vector \(\omega=(\omega_1,\dots,\omega_d)\) -- for short: \(\omega\)-quasiperiodic -- and \(\omega\) satisfies the well-known Diophantine condition. The Sacker-Sell problem consists in the following question: Does there exist an \(\omega\)-quasiperiodic transformation \(x=P(t)y\) which reduces (1) to a system (2) \(\dot y=B(t)y\), where \(B(t)\) is upper triangular and \(\omega\)-quasiperiodic? While it is already known that, in general, the answer is negative, the present paper establishes a concrete counterexample: the Schrödinger equation with a smooth \(\omega\)-quasiperiodic potential all of whose Fourier coefficients are positive. It is shown that the corresponding two-dimensional system is not reducible to a system (2) with constant matrix \(B\), even if an arbitrary transformation matrix \(P(t)\) is admitted. This result is then used to prove that the Schrödinger system has no \(\omega\)-quasiperiodic triangularization. Finally, a new sufficient condition for a positive answer to the Sacker-Sell problem for the general system (1) is given in terms of an approximating sequence of systems \(\dot x=A_j(t)x\), where the \(A_j(t)\) are suitable periodic matrices converging to \(A(t)\) as \(j\to\infty\).