On the construction of Lyapunov functions for nonlinear systems (Q2583633)

The author considers a two-dimensional nonlinear differential equation of the form \[ \dot{x}_1 = a f_1^\lambda(x_1) + b f_2^\mu(x_3),\quad \dot{x}_2= c f_1(x_1) + d f_2(x_2), \] where \(a,b,c,d\) are real numbers, \(\lambda\) and \(\mu\) are positive rational numbers with odd numerators and denominators, and the functions \(f_1,f_2\) are continuous and fulfill \(x_j f(x_j)>0\) for \(x_j\neq 0\) and \(j=1,2\). The aim of the paper is to find necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a Lyapunov function of the form \[ V(x_1,x_2)=\alpha\int_0^{x_1} f_1^\xi(\tau) d\tau + \int_0^{x_2} f_2^\theta(\tau) d\tau, \] where \(\xi\) and \(\theta\) are rational numbers with odd numerators and denominators and \(\alpha>0\). The problem is reformulated as an algebraic equation for which certain results are obtained. A generalization to a higher-dimensional differential equation is proposed. Finally, the results are applied to an example and perturbations are considered as well. It seems that the results obtained are only a moderate generalization of known results and the relevance of this generalization is not clear. Many steps in the proofs are not obvious, which makes it difficult to follow the main arguments.