In this paper we study pullback attractors of multi-valued dynamical systems that are asymptotically convergent. It is shown that, under certain conditions, the components of the pullback attractor of a dynamical system can converge in time to those of the pullback attractor of the limiting dynamical system. Particular examples are asymptotically autonomous and asymptotically periodic pullback attractors. Different criteria theorems requiring different conditions are established and their applicability and advantages are highlighted.
Attractor theory is a useful tool to learn about the long-time behavior of a dynamical system, see for instance [9,14], etc. One of the attractors that has attracted much attention in last two decades is the so-called pullback attractor, which is a time-indexed family of compact sets, where each compact set attracts the solution trajectories at the corresponding time as the initial data is pulled back to minus infinity [9,12].
A pullback attractor gives rich information of the asymptotic dynamics of the dynamical system. On one hand, it depicts the limiting behavior of solution trajectories from the distant past to any observation time, and on the other hand, it has close relationship with other kinds of attractors. For instance, the component sets of a pullback attractor can be interpreted as the kernel sections of a uniform attractor which describes the limiting behavior of the system in the distant future [3,18], and can have an equivalent relationship with cocycle attractors [2,5,8], while cocycle attractor theory is known as a useful tool to study the asymptotic behavior of random dynamical systems [7,15,19].
Generally, the time-dependence of a pullback attractor is directly related to the non-autonomous characteristic of the dynamical system caused by the time-dependent forcing field. For instance, if the forcing field is periodic, then the pullback attractor as a set-valued mapping is also periodic with the same period, see Theorem 2.5. Hence, intuitively, if the non-autonomous forcing of a dynamical system becomes more and more autonomous in some sense, the non-autonomous nature of the pullback attractor should correspondingly become weaker and weaker. This leads to the study of asymptotically autonomous pullback attractors, e.g., [10,11,16].
Most recently, for single-valued dynamical systems Li et al. [13] showed that
Letbe the pullback attractor of a (single-valued) process U and letbe the global attractor of a (single-valued) semigroup S. Suppose that
is forward compact, i.e., the unionis compact;
for anywith,
Then
Lemma 1.1 improves the corresponding results in [10] where the two conditions were assumed with more uniformity. However, it can still be hard to apply in applications since the forward compactness is usually technically difficult to verify especially in unsmoothing PDE problems. Hence, Cui [4] established the following alternative result using forward boundedness condition instead.
Letbe the pullback attractor of a (single-valued) process U and letbe the global attractor of a (single-valued) semigroup S. Suppose that
is forward bounded, i.e., there is a bounded set B such that;
the following asymptotically autonomous condition holds
Then
In this paper, we generalize the above results in three directions: first, we study multi-valued dynamical systems rather than only single-valued ones; second, we consider the convergence of pullback attractors to pullback attractors which covers the particular case that pullback attractors converge to semigroup attractors; third, both forward and backward convergences are studied and, moreover, under equi-attraction condition we show that the convergences can be in the full Hausdorff metric sense.
It is worth noting that the difference between conditions (1.1) and (1.2) can be crucial in particular applications. In single-valued cases, condition (1.1) is equivalent to
so it is strictly weaker than (1.2). But the multi-valued functions defined on
show that it is not the case for multi-valued dynamical systems, since for any bounded , while , i.e., condition (1.1) can fail under condition (1.2).
Inspired by the above observation, a scalar differential inclusion is studied as an example highlighting the advantages of Lemma 1.2 over Lemma 1.1. It is shown that the pullback attractor is asymptotically more and more periodic if so is the non-autonomous forcing, and is asymptotically autonomous if the forcing is asymptotically autonomous as well. Moreover, the equi-attraction of the pullback attractor is also proved, which makes the convergences in this application all valid in the full Hausdorff metric sense.
Pullback attractors of multi-valued processes
In this section we recall some preliminaries on pullback attractors of multi-valued dynamical systems, and then show that the pullback attractor of a periodic system is periodic.
Let be a complete metric space and the space of nonempty closed bounded subsets of X. Denote by and . The Hausdorff semi-metric between nonempty sets in X is denoted by dist, i.e.,
and denote the Hausdorff metric by .
Preliminaries
A mapping is called a multi-valued process if and for all and . It is called strict if for all and .
A family of compact sets is called the pullback attractor of a multi-valued process U if
it is pullback attracting, i.e., for every nonempty bounded set D in X,
it is negatively semi-invariant, i.e., for all ; and
it is minimal among families satisfying the above conditions.
Moreover, it is called strictly invariant if for all .
A family of nonempty sets is said to be
forward bounded/compact, if there exists a bounded/compact set B such that
backward bounded/compact, if there exists a bounded/compact set K such that
Suppose that there exists a pullback attracting family of compact setand that the maphas closed graph for all. Then U has a pullback attractorgiven bywhereis the pullback ω-limit set of B under U. Moreover, if U is strict and the pullback attractoris backward bounded, thenis strictly invariant.
A special multi-valued process is the so-called multi-valued semigroup of which the dynamical behavior depends only on the elapsed time and not on the initial time. It is defined as a multi-valued mapping satisfying and for all and .
A compact set is said to be the global attractor of multi-valued semigroup S if
it is globally attracting, i.e., for every nonempty bounded set D in X,
it is negatively semi-invariant, i.e., for all ;
it is the minimal compact set satisfying the above conditions.
Periodicity of pullback attractors
In this part we prove that the pullback attractors of periodic processes are periodic. Similar results are also seen in Wang [17] where random pullback attractors are studied, but note that our result is not a particular case since, unlike in Wang [17], the pullback attractors here cannot pullback attract themselves in general.
Let . A multi-valued process U is said to be periodic with period T if
A pullback attractor is called periodic with period T if for all .
Suppose that U is a multi-valued process with pullback attractor. If U is periodic with period T, thenis periodic with period T.
Define by . We need to prove that .
Let B be any a nonempty bounded set. By the pullback attraction of we have
Hence, is a compact non-autonomous set which is pullback attracting under U. By the minimal property of a pullback attractor we have .
In the same way, since
by the minimal property again we have . □
First convergence theorems from compactness properties
In this section we study pullback attractors with forward or backward compactness properties. Both forward and backward convergences are studied.
Semi convergences in Hausdorff semi-metric sense
The following is a multi-valued generalization of Lemma 1.1.
(Forward semi convergence).
Let U be a multi-valued process with pullback attractorand let S be a multi-valued semigroup with global attractor. Suppose that
for every sequencewith,
is forward compact.
Then
We prove the theorem by contradiction. Suppose that for some there exists a sequence such that for all . Then by the compactness of there exists a sequence such that
Since is forward compact, the set is compact. By the forward attraction of under S, there exists a such that
Besides, by the negative semi-invariance of , for every there is such that
and as for some in a subsequence sense. Hence, by condition (3.1), there exists an such that
Therefore, from (3.4) and (3.3) it follows that,
which contradicts (3.2). □
Analogously, we have the following backward semi convergence theorem.
(Backward semi convergence).
Let U be a multi-valued process with pullback attractorand let S be a multi-valued semigroup with global attractor. Suppose that
for anywith,
is backward compact.
Then
Full convergences in Hausdorff metric sense
In this section, based on the main ideas of Theorems 3.1 and 3.2 we study convergences in the full Hausdorff metric sense. To this end, an equi-attraction condition will be assumed.
The pullback attractor of process U is said to be equi-attracting under U if for any nonempty bounded set B
We begin with the following propositions for convergences of pullback attractors towards pullback attractors.
Let U andbe multi-valued processes with pullback attractorsand, respectively. Suppose that
for any sequencewith,
the two attractorsandare both forward compact;
andare equi-attracting under U and, respectively.
Thenandare asymptotically identical in the distant future, i.e.,
We first prove by contradiction that
Suppose that for some there exists a sequence such that
Then by the compactness of there exists a sequence such that
Let . By the equi-attraction of , there is an such that
Since is negatively semi-invariant, for each there is such that
By the compactness of B, for some as in a subsequence sense, which along condition (3.7) implies that there exists an such that
Therefore, from (3.10) and (3.11) it follows that
which contradicts (3.9). Hence, convergence (3.8) holds.
Let U andbe multi-valued processes with pullback attractorsand, respectively. Suppose that
for any sequencewith,
the two attractorsandare both backward compact;
andare equi-attracting under U and, respectively.
Thenandare asymptotically identical in the distant past, i.e.,
As corollaries of Propositions 3.4 and 3.5, we have the following two theorems.
(Forward full convergence).
Let U be a multi-valued process with pullback attractorand let S be a multi-valued semigroup with global attractor. Suppose that
for every sequencewith,
is forward compact;
is equi-attracting.
Then the global attractoris the ω-limit set of the pullback attractor, i.e.,
Define for every and , then is a multi-valued process with pullback attractor with . Hence, by Proposition 3.4, the theorem follows. □
(Backward full convergence).
Let U be a multi-valued process with pullback attractorand let S be a multi-valued semigroup with global attractor. Suppose that
for anywith,
is backward compact;
is equi-attracting.
Then the global attractoris the α-limit set of the pullback attractor, i.e.,
Alternative convergence theorems from boundedness properties
Since compactness conditions of attractors are usually technically difficult to establish in applications, by the spirit of Cui [4], using boundedness conditions instead of the compactness conditions, we establish some alternative criteria results.
Convergences without equi-attraction assumption
We first show results that do not rely on the equi-attraction property, including the full backward convergence which in Theorem 3.7 required the equi-attraction assumption.
(Forward semi convergence).
Let U be a multi-valued process with pullback attractorand let S be a multi-valued semigroup with global attractor. Suppose that
is forward bounded, i.e., there is a bounded set B such that;
the following asymptotically autonomous condition holds
Then
If it were not the case, then there would exist and such that
Since B is attracted by under S, there exists a such that
By the compactness of the attractor , for any there exists an such that
In addition, by the negative semi-invariance and forward boundedness of , for each there exists such that , which along with (4.4) implies
On the other hand, by condition (4.1), there exists an such that
so, by (4.5),
which contradicts (4.3). □
Slightly modifying the proof as in [6, Theorem 2] one sees that the condition (4.1) in Theorem 4.1 can be slightly weakened to the following condition
Now we turn to the backward case. We shall see that, without the semi-uniform attraction property as previously in Theorem 3.7, the convergence can still be in the Hausdorff metric sense, not only in the semi-metric sense as the forward convergence. To this end, we begin again with a more general convergence, that of pullback attractors to pullback attractors.
Letandbe pullback attractors of multi-valued processes U and, respectively. Suppose that
is backward bounded, i.e. there is a bounded set B such that;
the following convergence holds
ThenIf, moreover,is also backward bounded andthen the two attractorsandare asymptotically identical in distant past, i.e.,
We first prove the first part by contradiction. Suppose that for some there exists a sequence such that for all . Then by the compactness of there exists a sequence such that
Since is negatively semi-invariant, for every there is such that
Hence, by condition (4.6), there exists an such that for all
In addition, since is pullback attracted by under , there is an such that
Therefore, from (4.9) and (4.10) it follows that, for all ,
which contradicts (4.8).
In case of being also backward bounded with (4.7), exchanging the roles played by and we have . □
Suppose that U is a multi-valued process with pullback attractorand that S is a multi-valued semigroup with global attractor. If
is backward bounded, i.e. there is a bounded set B such that;
the following backward asymptotically autonomous condition holds
thenIf, moreover,then the global attractoris the α-limit set of the pullback attractor, i.e.,
Note that in Theorem 4.4 the full backward convergence does not require the equi-attraction property, which can be regarded as an advantage over Theorem 3.7.
Full forward convergences under the equi-attraction assumption
With the equi-attraction property, we have the following result on full forward convergence analogously to Proposition 3.4.
Let U andbe multi-valued processes with pullback attractorsand, respectively. Suppose that
the following condition holds for every nonempty bounded set B
andare both forward bounded;
andare both equi-attracting.
Thenandare asymptotically identical in the distant future, i.e.,
The proof can be done similarly to Proposition 3.4, and thus is omitted. □
As a corollary of Proposition 4.5, we have the following theorem.
(Forward full convergence).
Let U be a multi-valued process with a pullback attractorand let S be a multi-valued semigroup with a global attractor. Suppose that
the following condition holds for every nonempty bounded set B
is forward bounded;
is equi-attracting under U.
Then the semigroup attractoris the ω-limit set of the pullback attractor, i.e.,
Applications to a scalar differential inclusion
Compared with Theorem 3.1, Theorem 4.1 has an evident advantage that it requires only a forward boundedness condition rather than a forward compactness condition. This is an important improvement for infinite-dimensional dynamical systems even in single-valued cases; an example of a reaction-diffusion equation is given in [4].
In this section, by a scalar application we highlight another advantage that condition (4.1) has over (3.1). The main idea is that a multi-valued system can behave very differently at different points, in which case it is much convenient to use the convergence (4.1) with the initial data being the same.
We consider the following scalar differential inclusion
where , is the Heaviside function given by
which is the subdifferential of the absolute value , and is a continuous function satisfying
The function is called a solution of (5.1) if and there exists such that , for a.e. , and
It is clear that the problem (5.1) possesses at least one solution for every initial data [1]. Moreover, the following lemma shows that the uniqueness of solutions fails only when the initial data is zero.
For anythe problem (
5.1
) has the unique solution given byFor, there are infinitely many solutions given bywhereis arbitrary, and these are the only possible solutions.
The recent work by Caraballo et al. [1] shows that the scalar problem (5.1) generates a strict multi-valued process, which possesses a compact pullback attractor.
The mappinggiven byis a strict multi-valued process which has a closed graph. Moreover, the process U has a unique pullback attractor.
In this paper, making use of our theoretical results we study the asymptotic behavior of the tails of the pullback attractor under some conditions of . To begin with, we show that the pullback attractor is both backward and forward bounded, and is equi-attracting under U.
The pullback attractoris both forward and backward bounded.
By (5.2), any solution u of the problem (5.1) satisfies
By Gronwall’s lemma we have
Therefore, the non-autonomous set , given by
is a pullback absorbing set of the process U. Moreover, for all since . Hence, is both forward and backward bounded, and thereby so is the pullback attractor . □
The pullback attractoris equi-attracting under process U.
Given a nonempty bounded set , without loss of generality we assume that it can be divided into three parts , where contains all positive elements of K and contains all negative ones. We conclude the lemma by proving that
holds for , respectively.
Consider the bounded function given by
By the spirit of [1, Theorem 3.10], the mapping is a bounded complete trajectory of U satisfying
which implies that for all . Hence, by Lemma 5.2, since U is single-valued on , we have
uniformly for all . Therefore, the equi-attraction (5.3) holds for .
The case of is similar to with instead of .
Now we consider the case . Since the multi-valued process U is strict and from Proposition 5.4 the pullback attractor is backward bounded, by Lemma 2.3, is strictly invariant, that is, for every and . Therefore, since belongs to for all , we have
for all and . Hence, the equi-attraction (5.3) holds for . □
Convergences of asymptotically periodic pullback attractors
Let be a continuous periodic function, and consider the following periodic version of (5.1)
Clearly, the multi-valued process corresponding to (5.4) has a pullback attractor . Moreover, by Propositions 5.4 and 5.5 and Theorem 2.5 we have
The pullback attractoris both forward bounded and backward bounded, and is equi-attracting under. Moreover, it is periodic.
In the following, we study the convergences of the pullback attractor of (5.1) towards the periodic pullback attractor of (5.4).
(Forward convergence).
Let. Then the two attractorsandare asymptotically identical in the distant future with respect to the full Hausdorff metric, i.e.,
By Proposition 4.5 and Theorem 5.6, it suffices to prove
By assumption, for any there exists a such that for all . Hence, if , then, by Lemma 5.2,
if , then, by Lemma 5.2 again,
Therefore, (5.5) holds as desired. □
(Backward convergence).
Let. Then the two attractorsandare asymptotically identical in the distant past with respect to the full Hausdorff metric, i.e.,
By Proposition 4.3 it suffices to prove that
By assumption, for any there exists a such that for all . Hence, if , then, by Lemma 5.2,
if , then, by Lemma 5.2 again,
for all . Therefore, (5.6) holds as desired. □
Convergences of asymptotically autonomous pullback attractors
Let be a constant, and consider the autonomous version of (5.1)
Clearly, the multi-valued semigroup S generated by (5.7) has a global attractor .
In the following, we study the convergences of the pullback attractor of (5.1) towards the global attractor of (5.7).
(Forward convergence).
Let. Then the semigroup attractoris the ω-limit set of the pullback attractor, i.e.,
Since the pullback attractor is forward bounded by Proposition 5.4 and equi-attracting under U by Proposition 5.5, by Theorem 4.6 it suffices to prove that
By assumption, for any there exists a such that for all . Hence, if , then, by Lemma 5.2,
if , then, by Lemma 5.2 again,
Therefore, (5.8) holds as desired. □
(Backward convergence).
Let. Then the semigroup attractoris the α-limit set of the pullback attractor, i.e.,
Since by Proposition 5.4 the pullback attractor is backward bounded, by Theorem 4.4, it suffices to prove that
By assumption, for any there exists a such that for all . Hence, if , then, by Lemma 5.2,
if , then, by Lemma 5.2 again,
Therefore, (5.9) holds as desired. □
By Theorems 4.4 and 4.6 we have proved the full convergences of the pullback attractor to the semigroup attractor. This can be regarded as an example highlighting the advantages of Theorems 4.4 and 4.6 over first Theorems 3.6 and 3.7. Indeed, by Lemma 5.2 we have, for any ,
so condition (3.13) fails and Theorem 3.6 cannot be applied in this application. In comparison, condition (4.14) in Theorem 4.6 turns out to be easy to verify, see Theorem 5.9.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
H. Cui was funded by NSFC grant 11801195, and P.E. Kloeden was partially supported by the Chinese NSF grant 11571125.
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