On pantograph integro-differential equations (Q1343033)

The authors study the initial value problem for pantograph integro- differential equations of the form \[ y'(t) = a y(t) + \int^ 1_ 0 y(qt) d \mu (q) + \int^ 1_ 0 y'(qt) d \nu (q),\;t > 0, \quad y(0) = y_ 0, \tag{1} \] where \(a\) is a complex constant, \(\mu (q)\) and \(\nu (q)\) are complex-valued functions of bounded variation on \([0,1]\). Denote \(\mu_ k = \int^ 1_ 0 q^ kd \mu (q)\), \(\nu_ k = \int^ 1_ 0 q^ kd \nu (q)\) and \(\nu^*_ k = \int^ 1_ 0 q^ k | d \nu (q) |\) for \(k \in\mathbb{Z}^ +\). The main result (Theorem 1) yielding existence and uniqueness of solutions to problem (1) can be restated as follows: If \(\nu^*_ N < 1\) for some \(N \in\mathbb{Z}^ +\), the sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of solutions to problem (1) is the solvability of the algebraic linear system \[ (1 - \nu_ n) y_{n-1} - (a + \mu_ n) y_ n = 0, \quad n = 0, 1, \dots, N - 1, \tag{2} \] and in this case all solutions of (1) are analytic and can be expressed in the form \[ y(t) = \sum^ N_{n=0} {y_ nt^ n \over n!} + y_ N \sum^ \infty_{n = N + 1} {t^ n \over n!} \prod^{n-1}_{k=N} {a + \mu_ k \over 1 - \nu_ k}. \tag{3} \] Moreover, the uniqueness of the solution to problem (1) holds if \(\nu_ n \neq 0\) for \(0 \leq n \leq N - 1\). The remainder of the paper is devoted to various asymptotic properties of the analytic solutions (3) for some special cases. Some known results for neutral functional differential equations due to \textit{T. Kato} and \textit{J. B. McLeod} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 77, 891-937 (1971; Zbl 0236.34064)] and \textit{K. Yang} and \textit{A. Feldstein} [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 21, 1633- 1641 (1990; Zbl 0719.34134)] are generalized and improved in the paper by using different approaches.