This paper investigates the decay rate of the Hankel singular values of linear dynamical systems. This issue is of considerable interest in model reduction by means of balanced truncation, for instance, since the sum of the neglected singular values provides an upper bound for an appropriate norm of the approximation error. The decay rate involves a new set of invariants associated with a linear system, which are obtained by evaluating a modiΓΏed transfer function at the poles of the system. These considerations are equivalent to studying the decay rate of the eigenvalues of the product of the solutions of two Lyapunov equations. The related problem of determining the decay rate of the eigenvalues of the solution to one Lyapunov equation will also be addressed. Very often these eigenvalues, like the Hankel singular values, are rapidly decaying. This fact has motivated the development of several algorithms for computing low-rank approximate solutions to Lyapunov equations. However, until now, conditions assuring rapid decay have not been well understood. Such conditions are derived here by relating the solution to a numerically low-rank Cauchy matrix determined by the poles of the system. Bounds explaining rapid decay rates are obtained under some mild conditions.