Controllability and observability for non-autonomous evolution equations: the averaged Hautus test

Abstract: We consider the observability problem for non-autonomous evolution systems (i.e., the operators governing the system depend on time). We introduce an averaged Hautus condition and prove that for skew-adjoint operators it characterizes exact observability. Next, we extend this to more general class of operators under a growth condition on the associated evolution family. We give an application to the Schr\"odinger equation with time dependent potential and the damped wave equation with a time dependent damping coefficient.