A non-oscillation theorem for differential matrix systems (Q1779358)

Excellently written, the paper deals with a Wintner-Hille-Opial-type nonoscillation result for the matrix differential equation \(Y^{\prime \prime }+Q(t)Y=0\), \(t\geq a\), where \(Q(t)\) is a real, \(n\times n\), continuous, symmetric matrix function. The criterion given here (Theorem 1.18) reads as: Assume that \(\int_t^{+\infty }Q(s)ds\) exists in the limiting sense, that is lim\(_{T\rightarrow +\infty }\int_t^TQ(s)ds\) exists and is finite for all sufficiently large \(t\). If, for all \(t\geq a\), \[ \int_t^{+\infty }\left\| \int_s^{+\infty }Q(u)du\right\| ^2ds\leq \frac 14\left\| \int_t^{+\infty }Q(s)ds\right\| , \] then the matrix differential equation above is nonoscillatory (in the matrix sense, that is, there exists a solution \(Y(t)\) so that det\(Y(t)\) has at most a finite number of zeros on the half-line \([a,+\infty )\)). The proof relies on Schauder's fixed-point theorem, on a relative compactness result in \(L^2\) and on a matrix integral equation of Hille-type (Corollary 1.21). A survey of results on oscillation/nonoscillation of matrix differential equations accompanies the theorem. This work is of great significance for anyone interested in oscillation theory. Two open problems close the paper.