Large spectral gap induced by small delay and its application to reduction (Q2176554)

Let \(\{T(t,s)|t\geq s\}\) be a two-parameter family of bounded linear operators on a Banach space \(B\); \(T(t,s)\) is assumed to be a strongly continuous semi-group in \(t\) and \(s\). It is said that \(T(t,s)\) admits a \textit{pseudo-exponential dichotomy} with exponents \(\beta<\alpha\) and bound \(K\) on \(J\subseteq R\) if for each \(s\in J\) there exists a projection \(P(s)\) on \(B\) which is strongly continuous in \(s\), and the constants \(\alpha,\beta\in \mathbb R\), \(\beta<\alpha\); \(K>0\) such that (a) \(T(t,s)P(s)=P(s)T(t,s)\), \(t\geq s\); (b) \(T(t,s)|_{R(P(s))}\) is an isomorphism from \(R(P(s))\) onto \(R(P(t))\), where \(R(P(s))\) is the range of \(P(s)\). The inverse of \(T(t,s)|_{R(P(s))}\) is denoted by \(T(s,t): R(P(t))\mapsto R(P(s))\); (c) \(|T(t,s)P(t)\phi|\leq Ke^{-\alpha(t-s)}|P(t)\phi|\), \(t\geq s\), \(\phi\in B\); (d) \(|T(t,s)Q(s)\phi|\leq Ke^{\beta(t-s)}|Q(s)\phi|\), \(t\geq s\), \(\phi\in B\); \(Q(s)\equiv I- P(s)\). The paper tackles the pseudo-exponential dichotomy for the linear neutral functional differential equation \[ \frac{d}{dt}M(t)x_t = L(t)x_t \] where for each \(t\) the operators \(M(t)\) and \(L(t)\) are given by \[ \displaystyle{M(t)\phi = \phi(0) - \int_{-r}^0d\mu(t,\theta)\phi(\theta)\ ,\ L(t) = \int_{-r}^0d\eta(t,\theta)\phi(\theta)} \] \(r>0\) being a small delay.