Differential equations, hysteresis, and time delay (Q1865554)

The following two equations are from the description of a type of thermostat. One is an ordinary differential equation with hysteresis and time delay in the hysteresis: \[ \frac{dy}{dt}=-\frac{1}{L}[{\mathcal{F}}(u)](t-\tau).\tag{1} \] The other is a partial differential equation with hysteresis in the boundary conditions: \[ \begin{aligned} \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}-\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial x^2}=0,&\quad 0<x<L,\;t>0,\\ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}(0,t)=0,&\quad t>0, \tag{2}\\ \frac{\partial u}{\partial x}(L,t)=-[{\mathcal{F}}(u(0,\cdot))](t),&\quad t>0. \end{aligned} \] Here \({\mathcal{F}}\) represents a hysteresis operator of relay type: \([{\mathcal{F}}(u)](t)=w(t)\in \{-1,1\}\). The relay operator is characterized by two threshold values \(\rho_1<\rho_2\) and two output values \(-1\) and \(1\). For example, if \(u(0)<\rho_1\), then \(w(t)=-1\) as long as \(u(t)<\rho_2\); if at some instant \(u\) reaches \(\rho_2\), then \(w\) jumps up to 1 and remains as long as \(u(t)<\rho_1\); if later \(u\) reaches \(\rho_1\), then \(w\) jumps down to \(-1\); and so on. With this \(\mathcal{F}\), the existence of a periodic solution to both (1) and (2) is shown, and the relationship between the two models is discussed.