Lyapunov operators and stabilization in strongly order preserving dynamical systems (Q808059)

The authors obtain a simple geometrical condition under which all relatively compact orbits of a strongly order preserving dynamical system (defined by a strongly monotone semigroup) converge to an equilibrium. It is shown that all precompact orbits with initial data in an order interval [a,b], with a a subsolution and b a supersolution, are convergent if there is a continuous, strongly ordered arc \(\Gamma\) connecting a to b, with \(\Gamma =\Gamma_ 1\cup \Gamma_ 2\), \(\Gamma_ 1\) consisting of subsolutions and \(\Gamma_ 2\) consisting of supersolutions. The idea is the following: given any element in [a,b] there is either a maximal element of \(\Gamma_ 1\) below it or a minimal element of \(\Gamma_ 2\) above it. This allows to define so-called Lyapunov operators, and together with the strong monotonicity this forces the \(\omega\)-limit set of a precompact orbit to be a single element, namely an equilibrium of \(\Gamma\) ; in particular \(\Gamma\) contains all equilibria in [a,b]. An interesting case arises when \(\Gamma\) consists entirely of equilibria, because then the splitting \(\Gamma =\Gamma_ 1\cup \Gamma_ 2\) can be made in an infinity of ways. An important point is that the theory requires no smoothness assumptions for the dependence of the semigroup S(t) on t. The paper contains several applications, one of them on Fisher's equation; these applications either extend or give alternative proofs of earlier results.