Existence of positive periodic solutions for Volterra integro-differential equations. (Q5957125)

The authors consider the existence of positive periodic solutions for the Volterra integro-differential equation \[ y'(t)=- a(t) y(t)+ b(t) \int^0_{-\infty} K(r) g(t, y(t+ r))\,dr. \] The following is a main result. Let \(a\in C(R;R)\), \(\int^\omega_0 a(t)\,dt> 0\), \(b\in C(R; R^+)\), \(g\in C(R\times R^+; R^+)\), and let \(a\), \(b\), \(g\), be \(\omega\)-periodic in \(t\). Assume that \(K\in C(R^-; R^+)\) with \(\int^0_{-\infty} K(r)\,dr= 1\). Suppose that \[ \lim_{u\to 0}\;\min_{0\leq t\leq\omega}\,{g(t,u)\over u}=\infty;\quad \lim_{u\to\infty}\;\max_{0\leq t\leq\omega}\, {g(t,u)\over u}= 0. \] Then the equation above has at least one \(\omega\)-periodic positive solution. The proofs use Krasnoselskij's fixed point theorem. Certain applications to biological problems are presented.