Polynomial growth rates

We consider linear equations v' = A(t)v with a polynomial asymptotic behavior, that can be stable, unstable and central. We show that this behavior is exhibited by a large class of differential equations, by giving necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of generalized "polynomial" Lyapunov exponents for the existence of polynomial behavior. In particular, any linear equation in block form in a finite-dimensional space, with three blocks having "polynomial" Lyapunov exponents respectively negative, positive, and zero, has a nonuniform version of polynomial trichotomy, which corresponds to the usual notion of trichotomy but now with polynomial growth rates. We also obtain sharp bounds for the constants in the notion of polynomial trichotomy. In addition, we establish the persistence under sufficiently small nonlinear perturbations of the stability of a nonuniform polynomial contraction. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.