Global attractivity in differential equations with variable delays (Q4954074)

The authors investigate the asymptotics of the nonhomogeneous, nonautonomous differential equation with variable delay \[ x'(t)+b(t)x \bigl(t-\tau (t)\bigr)= f(t),\;t\geq 0, \] where \(f,b,\tau\) are continuous with \(b,\tau\) nonnegative. They show that if \(b\) is strictly positive, \(\int^\infty_0 b(t)dt= \infty\), \(\limsup_{t\to \infty}\int^t_{t-\tau (t)}<1\), \(\lim_{t\to \infty}f (t)[b(t)]^{-1} >0\) and \(\int^\infty_0 f(s)ds\) converges, then every solution satisfies \(\lim_{t\to \infty}x (t)=0\). This improves on results by \textit{V. B. Kolmanovskij}, \textit{L. Torelli}, \textit{R. Vermiglio} [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 25, No. 3, 948-961 (1994; Zbl 0808.34086) and \textit{G. Ladas}, \textit{Y. G. Sficas}, \textit{I. P. Stavroulakis} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 88, 247-253 (1983; Zbl 0521.34070)].