On positiveness of the Cauchy function of a singular linear functional differential equation (Q385259)

The paper studies the following first-order functional differential equation \[ (\mathcal{L}x)(t)=\dot{x}(t)+a(t)x(t)+(Tx)(t)=f(t),\quad t\in[0,b], \] where \(f\in L^p[0,b]\), \(a(t)\) has a singularity at \(t=0\) and satisfies \(\lim_{t\to 0^+} ta(t)=k\not =0\), and \(T\) has the form \((Tx)(t)=q(t)x(h(t))\) with the delay \(h(t)\leq t\). The paper obtains some criteria for the constant sign property of the Cauchy function for this equation and proves a theorem analogous to the Vallée-Poussin theorem.