On the regular solution of a second order delay differential equation (Q1865584)

The author deals with the existence of almost-periodic and quasi-periodic solutions to the equation \[ x''(t)+\omega^2x(t)=bx([t-1])+f(t), \] where \(\omega\not=0\) and \(b\not=0\) are real constants, \([\cdot]\) is the greatest integer function, and \(f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is continuous. Particularly, when \(\omega=\frac{\pi}{2}\), if \(b>\pi^2\) or \(b<0\), then this equation can possess a 4-periodic solution for a 4-periodic function \(f(t)\), which is greatly different from the case \(b\not=0\). The author states that this phenomena is due to the piecewise constant argument and illustrates a crucial difference between ODEs and delay differential equations with piecewise constant arguments. The author also extends the above discussion to quasilinear differential equations with piecewise constant arguments.