Observing linear dynamics with polynomial output functions (Q580259)

The paper is devoted to the problem of observing a linear system \(\dot x=Ax\), \(x\in R^ n\), by a scalar polynomial output function h(x) when the dimension of the null space of A is at most one. The main result refers to matrices whose eigenvalues are all real and the distinct ones (except zero) are linearly independent over the rationals. Under these preliminary assumptions, it is shown that the smallest degree of a polynomial function which observes the system is 2r-1, r representing the maximum number of Jordan blocks corresponding to any eigenvalue of A.