A saddle point theorem for functional state-dependent delay differential equations (Q1779047)

The authors study the stability of equilibrium points for functional-differential equations with state-dependent delay \[ u'(t)=F(u_t(\rho_1(u_t,\cdot)),\cdots,u_t(\rho_N(u_t,\cdot)))\;,\;t>0, \] with initial condition \(u_0=\varphi\in {\mathcal C}\). Here, \({\mathcal C}=C([-\tau,0];E)\, ,\;\tau>0\); \(E\) is a Banach space; \(u_t(\theta)=u(t+\theta)\, ,\;\theta\in [-\tau, 0]\); \(F:{\mathcal C}^N\to E\) is a continuous function and the delays \(\rho_j\, ,\;j=1,\cdots, N\), depend on the state variable. In this setting, several examples as applications of the model are given. As preliminary results, they achieve existence, continuation, uniqueness and smoothness for the solutions of the Cauchy problem. Then they provide, as the main result of the paper, sufficient conditions for the asymptotic stability of equilibrium solutions for a linearized equation constructed in correspondence of a given functional-differential equation with state-dependent delay. Finally, a saddle point theorem is presented.