Oscillation of a differential equation with fractional delay and piecewise constant arguments (Q2458528)

The delay differential equation \[ x'(t) + px \bigl( t - \tfrac{1}{2} \bigr) + q x([t-k]) = 0 \tag{1} \] is considered, where \(p\), \(q \in {\mathbb R}\), \(p \neq 0\), \(k\) is a nonnegative integer, and \([\cdot]\) denotes the greatest-integer function. The authors show that, in the case when \(0 < p \leq 2/e\) and \(0 \leq q \leq k^k/(k+1)^{k+1}\) for \(k>0\) and \(0 \leq q <1\) for \(k=0\), every solution of (1) is oscillatory if and only if the characteristic equation of (1) has no real roots in \((0,1)\).