Generalized convolution behaviors and topological algebra (Q267764)

The authors prove new results on one-dimensional generalized (convolution) behaviors, that were introduced by Schwartz as invariant varieties. These behaviors are defined as follows. Let \(\mathcal{E}\) be the signal space of smooth, complex-valued functions on \(\mathbb{R}\). The algebra \(\mathcal{E}'\) of compactly-supported distributions with its convolution product \(*\) is a ring of operators that acts on \(\mathcal{E}\) by a variant of \(*\) and makes it into an \(\mathcal{E}'\)-module. The ring \(\mathcal{E}'\) is a commutative integral domain. Both \(\mathcal{E}\) and \(\mathcal{E}'\) carry their standard topologies. All structures are canonically extended to finite products \(\mathcal{E}^{\ell}\) (columns) and \(\mathcal{E}^{'1\times\ell}\) (rows). A generalized behavior is a closed \(\mathcal{E}'\)-submodule of some \(\mathcal{E}^{\ell}\), \(\ell\in\mathbb{N}\). A generalized behavior is called a (convolution) behavior if it can be described by finitely many convolution equations. The ring \(\mathcal{E}'\) is not Noetherian and therefore the standard algebraic arguments from one-dimensional differential systems theory have to be completed by methods of topological algebra. Convolution equations and (generalized) convolution behaviors comprise differential, delay-differential and integral equations and behaviors. It is not known whether every generalized behavior is a behavior and this is probably hard to decide but the authors show that many of them are, in particular all autonomous ones. Another important topic of the present paper is the discussion of (Willems') elimination for generalized behaviors.