State space decomposition for non-autonomous dynamical systems

Abstract

The decomposition of state spaces into dynamically different components is helpful for understanding dynamics of complex systems. A Conley-type decomposition theorem is proved for non-autonomous dynamical systems defined on a non-compact but separable state space. Specifically, the state space can be decomposed into a chain-recurrent part and a gradient-like part. This result applies to both non-autonomous ordinary differential equations on a Euclidean space (which is only locally compact), and to non-autonomous partial differential equations on an infinite-dimensional function space (which is not even locally compact). This decomposition result is demonstrated by discussing a few concrete examples, such as the Lorenz system and the Navier–Stokes system, under time-dependent forcing.