Dichotomy of a special recurrence relation from the earth sciences (Q2367495)

Considering the ground water movement in a perfectly layered earth, a Fourier analysis of the potential of the flow (or the piezometric head) is used. The interface conditions between the \(j\)-th and the \((j+1)\)-th layer cause a matrix-vector recurrence relation in two space dimensions. The components of the matrices in this relation depend on the permeabilities and the thicknesses of the related layers, thus, they vary strongly with index \(j\). The stable computation of solutions to such recurrence relations depends on its dichotomy. [Concerning dichotomy see the basic research of \textit{W. A. Coppel}, Dichotomies in stability theory, Lect. Notes Math. 629 (1978; Zbl 0376.34001), for its use in stability see e.g. \textit{R. M. M. Mattheij}, SIAM Rev. 27, 1-44 (1985; Zbl 0642.65064)]. The authors describe the structure of the linear space of the solutions, especially the existence of physically meaningful decreasing (in modulus) solutions. A numerical algorithm to construct decreasing solutions has been implemented.