On existence and classification of singular points for higher order differential algebraic equations (Q6114625)

This paper is devoted to the study of singular points for linear differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) of higher order \[ \Lambda_k x:=\sum_{i=0}^k A_i(t)x^{(i)}(t)=f,\quad t\in T=[\alpha,\,\beta],\tag{1} \] where \(A_i(t)\) are \((n\times n)\)-matrices defined on \(T\), \(f=f(t)\) is a given function, \(x\) is the unknown function, \(x^{(i)}(t)\) denotes the \(i\)-th derivative \((d/dt)^i x(t)\). We assume that the coefficients of (1) are sufficiently smooth and \(A_k(t)\) is singular for all \(t\in T\). A point in \(T\) is said to be a singular point of (1) if at this point the existence or the uniqueness of solutions is violated, or the dimension of the solution subspace changes. First, the authors present some solvability results for DAEs without singular points in the domain. A notion of index is given by assuming the existence of a left regularizing operator that brings (1) into a system of ordinary differential equations. Next, a formal definition of (isolated) singular points of (1) is given. Then, singular points are characterized and classified by two types: differential singular points and algebraic singular points. Several specially constructed examples are given for illustrating how to find singular points and that if (1) has a singular point, then it may be unsolvable.