Stability and boundedness of solutions of neutral functional differential equations with finite delay (Q1856997)

Let \(C\) be the Banach space of continuous functions \(\varphi: [-r,0]\to \mathbb{R}^n\). The authors consider the functional-differential equation of the form \({d\over dt} (D(t) x_t)= f(t,x_t)\) where \(x_t\in C\) is defined by \(x_t(s)= x(t+ s)\) for any \(s\in [-r,0]\) and \(D: \mathbb{R}\to C^*\), where \(C^*\) is the conjugate space of \(C\). Under certain restrictive conditions on \(D(t)\) and the function \(f\), the authors prove that the solutions to the above equation are uniformly stable if and only if there exists a normal and controllable functional \(V(t,\varphi,\psi)\) such that \(V(t,x_t(t_0,\varphi), x_t(t_0,\psi))\) is monotonically nonincreasing with respect to \(t\) for any \(t_0\in \mathbb{R}^+\) and \(\varphi,\psi\in C\). They also obtain some results on uniform asymptotic stability of solutions.