Large-scale stochastic hereditary systems under Markovian structural perturbations. I: Variational comparison theorems (Q871331)

This paper is part of 3 subsequent papers in the same journal issue (see Zbl 1121.34086 and Zbl 1121.34087). This paper series investigates the qualitative behavior of large-scale stochastic hereditary systems under Markovian structural perturbations. The random structural perturbations are described by a Markov chain with a finite number of states. The first part of this three-part series deals with the problem formulation and the development of mathematical tools to undertake this investigation. In the first part the author presents variational comparison theorems for isolated subsystems of large-scale stochastic hereditary systems under Markovian structural perturbations. This part represents the basis for the study of hierarchic systems.