From Partial and Horizontal Contraction to $k$-Contraction

Abstract

A geometric generalization of contraction theory called~$k$-contraction was recently developed using $k$-compound matrices. In this note, we focus on the relations between $k$-contraction and two other generalized contraction frameworks: partial contraction (also known as virtual contraction) and horizontal contraction. We show that in general these three notions of contraction are different. We here provide new sufficient conditions guaranteeing that partial contraction implies horizontal contraction, and that horizontal contraction implies $k$-contraction. We use the Andronov-Hopf oscillator to demonstrate some of the theoretical results.