Oscillation criteria for first order linear delay differential equations with several variable delays (Q2178696)

The authors condiser the oscillation problem for the first-order delay differential equation \[ x'(t)+\sum_{i=1}^m p_i(t)x(t-\tau(t))=0. \] It has been shown in the literature that the equation is oscillatory if a liminf condition is satisfied. For example, \[ \liminf_{t \to \infty}\sum_{i=1}^m \int_{t-\tau_i}^t p_i(s) ds >\frac 1e \quad \text{ when } \tau_i \text{ is constant}.\tag{\(*\)} \] Parallel results have also been given for the case when \(\tau_i(t)\) is variable. In this paper, the authors show that under some conditions, the liminf condition for oscillation can be weekend to a limsup condition for \(\tau_i(t)\) to be constant and variable. In particular for the former, \((*)\) becoms \[ \limsup_{t \to \infty}\sum_{i=1}^m \int_{t-\tau_i}^t p_i(s) ds >\frac 1e. \]