Pullback exponential attractors for nonautonomous equations Part I: Semilinear parabolic problems

A family of compact and positively invariant sets with uniformly bounded fractal dimension which at a uniform exponential rate pullback attract bounded subsets of the phase space under the process is constructed. The existence of such a family, called a pullback exponential attractor, is proved for a nonautonomous semilinear abstract parabolic Cauchy problem. Specific examples will be presented in the forthcoming Part II of this work.