Lyapunov’s coefficient of regularity and nonuniform hyperbolicity

Abstract

For a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time defined by a sequence of matrices, we obtain sharp lower and upper bounds for the Lyapunov coefficient of regularity. This has the advantage of avoiding considering the adjoint dynamics (in contrast to what happens with the regularity coefficients considered by Perron and Grobman). We also show that the dynamics can always be reduced to one defined by upper triangular matrices with the additional properties that the canonical basis is normal and ordered. Moreover, we show in a simpler manner that the Lyapunov coefficient of regularity is related to the notion of nonuniform hyperbolicity, more precisely to the nonuniform part of a nonuniform exponential contraction or a nonuniform exponential dichotomy. Finally, as an application of this relation, we show that from the point of view of ergodic theory, for almost all trajectories with negative Lyapunov exponents the nonuniformity can be made arbitrarily small.