Necessary and sufficient conditions for oscillation of delay parabolic differential equations (Q1413424)

The authors consider the oscillation of the parabolic equation \[ \frac{\partial}{\partial t}u(x,t)=a(t)\Delta u(x,t)+\sum\limits_{k=1}^sa_k(t)\Delta u(x,t-\rho_k(t))-\sum\limits_{j=1}^mq_j(t)u(x,t-\sigma_j(t))\tag{1} \] with the boundary value condition \[ u(x,t)=0,\quad (x,t)\in\partial\Omega\times [0,\infty)\tag{2} \] or \[ \frac{\partial u(x,t)}{\partial N}=0,\quad (x,t)\in\partial\Omega\times [0,\infty),\tag{3} \] where \(\Omega\subset {\mathbb R}^N\) is a bounded domain with a piecewise smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega\), and \(\Delta\) is the Laplacian in \({\mathbb R}^N\), \(a,a_k,q_j\in C([0,\infty),[0,\infty))\), \(\rho_k,\sigma_j\in C([0,\infty),[0,\infty))\), \(\lim_{t\to\infty} (t-\rho_k(t))= \lim_{t\to\infty} (t-\sigma_j(t))=\infty\), \(k\in I_s=\{1,2,\dots,s\}\), \(j\in I_m=\{1,2,\dots,m\}\). By using a result obtained by \textit{L. H. Erbe} and \textit{Q. Kong} [Can. J. Math. 46, 284--297 (1994; Zbl 0797.34072)], a group of sufficient and necessary conditions are gained for oscillation. As applications, oscillations of some kinds of familiar equations such as \[ \frac{\partial}{\partial t}u(x,t)=a\Delta u(x,t)+b\Delta u(x,t-\sigma)-qu(x,t-\sigma), \] \[ w^\prime (t)+qw(t-\sigma)=0 \] are discussed, the results of which were given in previous references.