Exponential stability of nonlinear time-varying differential equations and partial averaging (Q1610997)

The authors deal with the exponential stability of nonlinear time-varying systems. They aim to extend classical averaging methods to systems of the form \[ \dot x=f(x,t,\alpha t)\tag{1} \] for \(\alpha\) sufficiently large. The basic result states that the exponential stability of (1) can be deduced from the existence of a suitable Lyapunov function for the associated system \[ \dot x=\overline f(x,t).\tag{2} \] A second result makes use of a converse Lyapunov theorem in order to deduce exponential stability of (1) directly from exponential stability of (2). The last result provides a way to construct \(\overline f\) by partially averaging of \(f\) (with respect to the third variable). The paper is completed by some counterexamples and applications.