On the Lyapounov exponent of certain SL\((2,\mathbb{R})\)-valued cocycles (Q5942902)

The authors study the positivity of the Lyapounov exponent \(\beta\) for certain SL\((2,\mathbb{R})\)-valued cocycles defined on a torus \(T^k\). The two main results are: (i) A set of coefficient functions is given for which \(\beta\) is strictly positive, (ii) The size of the class of systems for which \(\beta\) is zero is analyzed. The proofs are based on the concepts of rotation number and exponential dichotomy for linear differential systems.