Localization of invariant compacta of autonomous systems

Abstract

A class of problems that may be characterized as localization problems are becoming increasingly popular in qualitative theory of differential equations [1---15]. The specific formulations differ, but geometrically all search for phase space subsets with desired properties, e.g., contain certain solutions of the system of differential equations. Such problems include construction of positive invariant sets that contain certain separatrices of the Lorenz system [1], analysis of asymptotic behavior of solutions of the Lorenz system and determination of sets that contain the Lorenz attractor [2---5, 14], as well as determination of sets containing all periodic trajectories [6---13], separatrices, and other trajectories [10, 11]. Such sets may be naturally called localizing sets and it is obviously interesting to study methods and results that produce exact or nearly exact localizing sets for each phase space structure. In this article we focus on localization of the invariant compact sets in the phase space of a differential equation system, specifically the problem of finding phase space subsets that contain all the invariant compacta of the system. Invariant compact sets are equilibria, periodic trajectories, separatrices, limit cycles, invariant tori, and other sets and their finite unions. These sets and their properties largely determine the phase space structure and the qualitative behavior of solutions of the differential equation system.