No label defined (Q4487973)

The authors consider the second-order delay difference equation \[ \Delta\bigl[ a_n\Delta(x_n+ p_nx_{g(n)}) \bigr]+ q_nf(x_{\sigma(n)}) =0, \tag{1} \] where \(\Delta x_n= x_{n+1}-x_n\), \(\{a_n\}\), \(\{p_n\}\), \(\{q_n\}\), \(\{g(n) \}\), \(\{\sigma(n)\}\) are real sequences, with \(g(n)\leq n\), \(\sigma(n)\leq n\) and \(\sigma(n)\) increasing, and \(f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) is a continuous function satisfying \[ {f(x)\over x}\geq \gamma>0 \text{ for some constant }\gamma. \] By using Riccati type transformation, the following sufficient condition for the oscillation of all solutions to Eq. (1) is given: ``If \(a_n>0\), \(0\leq p_n\leq 1\) and \(q_n\geq 0\) hold for all sufficiently large \(n\), \(q_n\not\equiv 0\), \[ \sum^\infty {1\over a_n} =\infty, \] and there exists a positive sequence \(\{h_n\}\) such that \[ \lim_{n\to\infty}\sup\sum^n_ih_i\bigl[\gamma q_i(1-p_{\sigma(i)})- (1/4)a_{\sigma(i)} (\Delta h_i/h_i)^2 \bigr]=\infty. \] Then all solutions of (1) are oscillatory.'' This result extends the Theorem 2 of \textit{Z. Szafranski} and \textit{B. Szmanda} [Appl. Math. Comput. 83, No. 1, 43-52 (1997; Zbl 0871.39006)].