Abstract The relationship between different dissipativity concepts for linear time-varying systems is studied, in particular between port-Hamiltonian systems, passive systems, and systems with nonnegative supply. It is shown that linear time-varying port-Hamiltonian systems are passive, have nonnegative supply rates, and solve (under different smoothness assumptions) Kalman–Yakubovich–Popov differential and integral inequalities. The converse relations are also studied in detail. In particular, sufficient conditions are presented to obtain a port-Hamiltonian representation starting from any of the other dissipativity concepts. Two applications are presented.

Abstract We study the solution theory of singular linear switched systems with inputs (also known as switched descriptor systems). These systems are highly relevant in many applications; in particular, in economics the well-known dynamic Leontief model with changing coefficient matrices falls into this class. Theorem 5.1 in the paper by Anh et al. (2019) stated that if a singular linear switched system is jointly index-1, then there exists an explicit surrogate switched system having identical solution behavior for all switching signals. However, it was not clear yet whether the jointly index-1 condition is a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence and uniqueness of a solution. Furthermore, it was also not clear what conditions are actually required to guarantee existence and uniqueness of solutions for particular switching signals only. In this article, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of solutions for singular linear switched systems with respect to fixed switching signals (both mode sequences and switching times are fixed), fixed mode sequences (switching times are arbitrary), and arbitrary switching signals (both mode sequences and switching times are arbitrary). In all three cases we provide an explicit surrogate system with the same solution set; our approach improves the results presented in Anh et al. (2019) as the coefficient matrices describing the transition from x(k) to $$x(k+1)$$ x ( k + 1 ) only depend on original system matrices at time k and $$k+1$$ k + 1 and not on $$k-1$$ k - 1 as in Anh et al. (2019). We illustrate the theoretical findings with the dynamic Leontief model and investigate the solvability properties of discretizations of continuous-time singular systems.