Unified canonical forms for matrices over a differential ring (Q2639926)

The authors study n'th order linear ordinary differential operators with time-dependent coefficients and vector forms of first order linear differential operators with time-dependent matrix. They develop the theory for sort of time-dependent eigenvalues and canonical forms, which generalizes the classical concepts for equations with constant coefficients. In the case of an n'th order linear ordinary differential operator it is factored as composition of n first order expressions D-\(\lambda\), where \(\lambda\) is a function, and these \(\lambda\) 's play the role of time- dependent generalized eigenvalues. A differential operator on vector form is similar to an n'th order ordinary differential operator. They obtain eight new notions related to spectra and canonical forms and investigate their interrelations. Of these there are three new canonical forms unifying the classical companion, Jordan and Vandermonde forms and four new time-dependent similarity transformations carrying a given time-dependent matrix into one of the canonical forms.