Regime-Switching Volterra Operators: Modal Stability and Quenched Amplification

Abstract

We develop an operator-theoretic framework for finite-dimensional, regime-dependent Volterra equations with completely monotone memory kernels, dissipative network coupling, and Hawkes-type self-excitation. For each fixed regime we construct the associated Volterra resolvent family and prove global well-posedness, continuity across regime switches, and explicit a priori bounds. The main stability result is sharp in the commuting case: after simultaneous diagonalization of the network Laplacian and the excitation operator, each mode obeys a scalar characteristic equation, and global asymptotic stability holds exactly when every modal branching ratio lies below the intensity damping threshold. We also give a norm-based sufficient condition for noncommuting operators and a Perron--Frobenius spectral criterion for nonnegative intensity blocks, showing when norm estimates are conservative. Beyond mean stability, we prove a pathwise finite-range power law for burst amplitudes generated by residence in a Hurwitz but nonnormal regime: under a cone-alignment event, the survival exponent is the ratio of the regime exit rate to a cone-corrected finite-time growth rate bounded above by the logarithmic norm of a fixed Markovian realization in the chosen Euclidean metric. A complementary idealized-feedback result shows how a logarithmic-norm contraction caps the amplification band. Finally, we derive the deterministic intensity block as a mean-field limit of a relaxing long-memory Hawkes system with regimes. Numerical experiments on modal equations, a small-world network, and a switched nonnormal ODE validate the sharp threshold and the finite-range amplification mechanism without using the closed-form tail formula as input.