Stable Reduction of Unresolved Dynamics: An Operator-Theoretic Framework

Abstract

Dimension reduction removes variables, but a reliable reduction should not erase their dynamical influence. We study this principle for linear block evolution systems on resolved and unresolved Hilbert spaces. Exact elimination of the unresolved component yields a Volterra equation with a memory kernel and an effective forcing term carrying hidden initial data and forcing; in the Laplace domain the same operation is a dynamic Schur complement. We introduce finite-horizon trajectory-stable reduction and derive perturbation estimates for operator-valued kernels, then lift them to perturbations of the hidden propagator, couplings, hidden initial state, and hidden forcing. For passive skew-adjoint couplings, the reduced memory operator has positive type and an exact storage identity, and norm-convergent passive realisations preserve both trajectories and the storage--dissipation functional. Compatible finite spectral truncations provide structure-preserving internal-variable reductions. Two elementary examples separate positive type from instantaneous $L^2$-coercivity and show that small hidden amplitude need not imply small long-time influence. The framework isolates the controlled approximation of unresolved influence, rather than elimination alone, as the central reduction problem.