A continuous semiflow on a space of Lipschitz functions for a differential equation with state-dependent delay from cell biology (Q2235667)

The paper is motivated by a model from cell biology connected to self-renewal and differentiation. It has a threshold type (and hence state-dependent) delay and takes the form \[ \left\{\begin{aligned} \dot w(t) & = q(v(t)) w(t), \\ \dot v(t) & = - \mu v(t) + \frac{\gamma(v(t-\tau(v_t)))}{g(x_1,v(t-\tau(v_t)))} g(x_2,v(t)) w(t-\tau(v_t))\cdot \\ & \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \cdot \exp[ \int_0^{\tau(v_t)} (d- D_1g)(y(s, v_t), v(t-s)) \, ds], \end{aligned}\right. \tag{1} \] where \(x_1, x_2\) are parameters, and \(y(s, \psi) \) and \(\tau(\psi)\) are implicitly defined by the conditions \[ \dot y(s, \psi) = - g(y(s),\psi(-s)) \,(s >0),\quad y(0) = x_2,\quad y(\tau(\psi), \psi) = x_1. \] Here \(v(t) \in \mathbb{R}\), while \(w(t)\) can be in \(\mathbb{R}^n\). The above system is generalized to systems of the form \[ \dot w(t) = m(w_t, v_t), \quad \dot v(t) = - \mu v(t) + j(w_t, v_t)), \tag{2} \] with state space \(C^0([-h, 0], \mathbb{R}^{n+1})\) and functionals \(m\) and \(j\), and even further to \[ \dot x(t) = f(x_t). \tag{3} \] The notion of `almost locally Lipschitz continuous' for functionals (meaning roughly: locally Lipschitz continuous on sets of Lipschitz continuous functions) plays a central role at this level of generality. Existence of solutions and continuity properties (a semiflow) is established for system (3), with invariance of the set of non-negative states (in accordance with the biological interpretation of the motivating system). Section 3 shows how equation (2) fits into the more general framework. Appropriate boundedness conditions on \(m\) (a linear bound) and \(j\) also give that sets \(C_{B, R}\) of functions on \([-h,0]\) with values in \([0, B]\) and Lipschitz constant \(R\) are invariant under the development of the \(v\)-component in system (2). Section 4 describes in which sense system (1) is a special case of system (2). In particular, the threshold condition gives a well-defined delay function \(\tau\). The resulting Theorem 4.10 on equation (1) then follows from the more general results. Further possible developments are discussed in Section 5, in particular, possibly finding periodic solutions within invariant compact regions in phase space.