Necessary and sufficient conditions for oscillation of the solutions of linear functional differential equations of neutral type with distributed delay (Q2640766)

\textit{Y. G. Sficas} and \textit{I. P. Stavroulakis} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 123, 494-507 (1989; Zbl 0631.34074)] and \textit{E. A. Grove}, \textit{G. Ladas} and \textit{A. Meimaridou} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 126, 341-354 (1987; Zbl 0649.34069)] proved that all nonzero solutions of the equation of neutral type \((d/dt)[x(t)+px(t-\tau)]+qx(t-\sigma)=0\) oscillate iff the characteristic equation \(z(1+pe^{-z\tau})+qe^{-z\sigma}=0\) has no real roots. This paper proves analogous results for a class of neutral equations with distributed delay of the form \[ (1)\quad \frac{d}{dt}[x(t)+\delta_ 1\int^{\tau_ 1}_{0}x(t-s)dr_ 1(s)]+\delta_ 2\int^{\tau_ 2}_{0}x(t-s)dr_ 2(s)=0, \] where \(\delta_ 1,\delta_ 2=\pm 1\); \(r_ i:[0,\tau_ i]\to [0,\infty)\), \(i=1,2\), are nondecreasing and \(\tau_ i>0\), \(r_ i(0)=0\), \(i=1,2\), \(r_ 1(0^+)=0\) and \(r_ 2(\tau_ 2)>0\). The characteristic equation of (1) is \[ z(1+\delta_ 1\int^{\tau_ 1}_{0}e^{-zs}dr_ 1(s))+\delta_ 2\int^{\tau_ 2}_{0}e^{-zs}dr_ 2(s)=0. \] (Remark: The original condition \(r_ i(0)>0\), \(i=1,2\), is incorrect.)