Is the Sacker–Sell type spectrum equal to the contractible set?

Abstract

For linear differential systems, the Sacker–Sell spectrum (dichotomy spectrum) and the contractible set are the same. However, we claim that this is not true for the linear difference equations. A counterexample is given. For the convenience of research, we study the relations between the dichotomy spectrum and the contractible set under the framework on time scales. In fact, by a counterexample, we show that the contractible set could be different from dichotomy spectrum on time scales established by Siegmund [J. Comput. Appl. Math., 2002]. Furthermore, we find that there is no bijection between them. In particular, for the linear difference equations, the contractible set is not equal to the dichotomy spectrum. To counter this mismatch, we propose a new notion called generalized contractible set and we prove that the generalized contractible set is exactly the dichotomy spectrum. Our approach is based on roughness theory and Perron's transformation. In this paper, a new method for roughness theory on time scales is provided. Moreover, we provide a time-scaled version of the Perron's transformation. However, the standard argument is invalid for Perron's transformation. Thus, some novel techniques should be employed to deal with this problem. Finally, an example is given to verify the theoretical results.