Stability for a functional differential equation in Hilbert space (Q2726418)

The stability of functional differential equations of the form NEWLINE\[NEWLINE\begin{aligned} u'(t) & = Au(t)+ bu(t)+\int^0_{-h} a(r)Au(t+r)dr,\;t>0\\ u(0) & = \varphi^0\\ u(r) & = \varphi^1(r),\;r\in[-h,0) \end{aligned}NEWLINE\]NEWLINE is considered by first proving the norm continuity of the solution semigroup, which implies that the stability is determined by the spectrum of its infinitesimal generator. This in turn is determined by the characteristic equation NEWLINE\[NEWLINE\lambda x-bx-Ax-m(\lambda) Ax=0,NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where NEWLINE\[NEWLINEm(\lambda)=1 +\int^0_{-h}a(s) e^{\lambda s}ds.NEWLINE\]NEWLINE It is shown that if the spectrum is real and strictly contained in the negative real axis, then the system is exponentially stable.