Synchronization, Lyapunov Exponents and Stable Manifolds for Random Dynamical Systems

During the past decades, the question of existence and properties of a random attractor of a random dynamical system generated by an S(P)DE has received considerable attention, for example by the work of Gess and Rockner. Recently some authors investigated sufficient conditions which guarantee synchronization, i.e. existence of a random attractor which is a singleton. It is reasonable to conjecture that synchronization and negativity (or non-positivity) of the top Lyapunov exponent of the system should be closely related since bothmean that the system is contracting in some sense. Based on classical results by Ruelle, we formulate positive results in this direction. Finally we provide two very simple but striking examples of one-dimensional monotone random dynamical systems for which 0 is a fixed point. In the first example, the Lyapunov exponent is strictly negative but nevertheless all trajectories starting outside of 0 diverge to 8 or -8. In particular, there is no synchronization (not even locally). In the second example (which is just the time reversal of the first), the Lyapunov exponent is strictly positive but nevertheless there is synchronization.