Factoring and decomposing a class of linear functional systems

Within a constructive homological algebra approach, we study the factorization and decomposition problems for a class of linear functional (determined, over-determined, under-determined) systems. Using the concept of Ore algebras of functional operators (e.g., ordinary/partial differential operators, shift operators, time-delay operators), we first concentrate on the computation of morphisms from a finitely presented left module M over an Ore algebra to another one M', where M (resp., M') is a module intrinsically associated with the linear functional system Ry=0 (resp., R'z = 0). These morphisms define applications sending solutions of the system R'z = 0 to solutions of Ry = 0. We explicitly characterize the kernel, image, cokernel and coimage of a general morphism. We then show that the existence of a non-injective endomorphism of the module M is equivalent to the existence of a non-trivial factorization R=R2R1 of the system matrix R. The corresponding system can then be integrated "in cascade". Under certain conditions, we also show that the system Ry = 0 is equivalent to a system R'z = 0, where R' is a block-triangular matrix of the same size as R. We show that the existence of idempotents of the endomorphism ring of the module M allows us to reduce the integration of the system Ry = 0 to the integration of two independent systems R(1)y(1) = 0 and R(2)y(2) = 0. Furthermore, we prove that, under certain conditions, idempotents provide decompositions of the system Ry = 0, i.e., they allow us to compute an equivalent system R'z = 0, where R' is a block-diagonal matrix of the same size as R. Applications of these results in mathematical physics and control theory are given. Finally, the different algorithms of the paper are implemented in the Maple package MORPHISMS based on the library OREMODULES. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.