On null controllability of linear systems in Banach spaces

Our aim here is to give characterizations for the null controllability of linear systems in general Banach spaces. The starting point of this paper is the work of Pengnian Chen and Huashu Qin (Systems Control Lett. 45 (2002) 155), which solves the problem of exact controllability. In fact, the results of (Systems Control Lett. 45 (2002) 155) say that, in case of setting in general Banach spaces, there are the same characterizations of exact controllability as in the case of reflexive Banach spaces. An open problem raised in (Systems Control Lett. 45 (2002) 155) is the validity of a similar result for null controllability. We give here a positive answer to this problem. However, it seems to us that the technique of (Systems Control Lett. 45 (2002) 155) does not work for null controllability, and, consequently, our approach is completely different.