An affirmative answer to Gopalsamy and Liu's conjecture in a population model (Q2473967)

The paper deals with the global asymptotic stability of the unique positive equilibrium \(N^*=1/(a+b)\) of the delay differential equation \[ {dN(s)\over ds}=r N(s) (1-aN(s)-bN([s])),\quad s\in (0,\infty). \] Here \(r\), \(a\), \(b\) are positive numbers and \([s]\) denotes the integer part of \(s\). This equation is a mathematical model to describe a logistically growing population undergoing a density-dependent harvesting. Using the notation \[ \alpha={a\over b}\,,\quad \hat{\bar r}(\alpha)\equiv {1+\alpha\over\alpha}\,\text{ ln}{1+\alpha\over 1-\alpha}\,. \] \textit{K. Gopalsamy} and \textit{P. Liu} in [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 224, 59--80 (1998; Zbl 0912.34040)] conjectured that when \(\alpha\in (0,\,1)\) the equilibrium \(N^*\) is globally asymptotically stable if and only if \(r\leq \hat{\bar r}(\alpha)\). In the present paper this conjecture is proved for \(0.625\leq\alpha< 1\). The authors assert that this result combined with the result of \textit{Y. Muroya} and \textit{Y. Kato} in [J. Comput. Appl. Math. 181, 70--82 (2005; Zbl 1065.92034)] gives a complete affirmative answer to Gopalsamy and Liu's conjecture.