A Perron-type theorem for nonautonomous differential equations (Q2514018)

The authors relate the asymptotic behavior of solutions to the semi-linear ordinary differential equation \[ \dot x=A(x)+f(t,x) \quad(\ast) \] to its linear part \(\dot x=A(t)x\), provided the nonlinearity \(f\) is sufficiently weak. Precisely, it is assumed that the extended state space of the linear equation allows a splitting into subspaces and on each subspace one obtains a sharp Lyapunov exponent, plus a nondegeneracy condition on the (sharp) Lyapunov exponents relating the angle between the subspaces. Provided there exists a continuous function \(\gamma\) with \(\|f(t,x)\|\leq\gamma(t)\|x\|\) and a \(\delta>0\) such that \(\int_t^{t+1}e^{\delta s}\gamma(s)\,ds\to 0\) as \(t\to\infty\) holds than a solution to \((\ast)\) either eventually vanishes or its (sharp) Lyapunov exponent exists and conincides with one of the Lyapunov exponents of the linearization. The results are based on regular systems in the sense of Lyapunov's stability theory. In the final section, it is illustrated that the given approach extends to differential equations in infinite-dimensional and separable spaces.