Positive Forms and Stability of Linear Time-Delay Systems

We consider the problem of constructing Lyapunov functions for linear differential equations with delays. For such systems it is known that exponential stability implies the existence of a positive Lyapunov function which is quadratic on the space of continuous functions. We give an explicit parametrization of a sequence of finite-dimensional subsets of the cone of positive Lyapunov functions using positive semidefinite matrices. This allows stability analysis of linear time-delay systems to be formulated as a semidefinite program.Comment: journal version, 14 page

Distributed delays stabilize negative feedback loops

Linear scalar differential equations with distributed delays appear in the study of the local stability of nonlinear differential equations with feedback, which are common in biology and physics. Negative feedback loops tend to promote oscillation around steady states, and their stability depends on the particular shape of the delay distribution. Since in applications the mean delay is often the only reliable information available about the distribution, it is desirable to find conditions for stability that are independent from the shape of the distribution. We show here that the linear equation with distributed delays is asymptotically stable if the associated differential equation with a discrete delay of the same mean is asymptotically stable. Therefore, distributed delays stabilize negative feedback loops

Zero-Delay Rate Distortion via Filtering for Vector-Valued Gaussian Sources

We deal with zero-delay source coding of a vector-valued Gauss-Markov source subject to a mean-squared error (MSE) fidelity criterion characterized by the operational zero-delay vector-valued Gaussian rate distortion function (RDF). We address this problem by considering the nonanticipative RDF (NRDF) which is a lower bound to the causal optimal performance theoretically attainable (OPTA) function and operational zero-delay RDF. We recall the realization that corresponds to the optimal "test-channel" of the Gaussian NRDF, when considering a vector Gauss-Markov source subject to a MSE distortion in the finite time horizon. Then, we introduce sufficient conditions to show existence of solution for this problem in the infinite time horizon. For the asymptotic regime, we use the asymptotic characterization of the Gaussian NRDF to provide a new equivalent realization scheme with feedback which is characterized by a resource allocation (reverse-waterfilling) problem across the dimension of the vector source. We leverage the new realization to derive a predictive coding scheme via lattice quantization with subtractive dither and joint memoryless entropy coding. This coding scheme offers an upper bound to the operational zero-delay vector-valued Gaussian RDF. When we use scalar quantization, then for "r" active dimensions of the vector Gauss-Markov source the gap between the obtained lower and theoretical upper bounds is less than or equal to 0.254r + 1 bits/vector. We further show that it is possible when we use vector quantization, and assume infinite dimensional Gauss-Markov sources to make the previous gap to be negligible, i.e., Gaussian NRDF approximates the operational zero-delay Gaussian RDF. We also extend our results to vector-valued Gaussian sources of any finite memory under mild conditions. Our theoretical framework is demonstrated with illustrative numerical experiments.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures, published in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processin

Sufficient Stability Conditions for Time-varying Networks of Telegrapher's Equations or Difference Delay Equations

We give a sufficient condition for exponential stability of a network of lossless telegrapher's equations, coupled by linear time-varying boundary conditions. The sufficient conditions is in terms of dissipativity of the couplings, which is natural for instance in the context of microwave circuits. Exponential stability is with respect to any $L^p$-norm, $1\leq p\leq\infty$. This also yields a sufficient condition for exponential stability to a special class of linear time-varying difference delay systems which is quite explicit and tractable. One ingredient of the proof is that $L^p$ exponential stability for such difference delay systems is independent of $p$, thereby reproving in a simpler way some results from [3].Comment: To be published in SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis, most probably 202