Large time behavior via the method of l-trajectories

The method of l-trajectories is presented in a general setting as an alternative approach to the study of the large-time behavior of nonlinear evolutionary systems. It can be successfully applied to the problems where solutions suffer from lack of regularity or when the leading elliptic operator is nonlinear. Here we concentrate on systems of a parabolic type and apply the method to an abstract nonlinear dissipative equation of the first order and to a class of equations pertinent to nonlinear fluid mechanics. In both cases we prove the existence of a finite-dimensional global attractor and the existence of an exponential attractor. (C) 2002 Elsevier (USA).