An estimate of numbers of terms of semicycles of delay difference equations (Q5948733)

The authors study the delay difference equation NEWLINE\[NEWLINE y_{n+1}-y_n+p_ny_{n-k}=0,\tag{*} NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(\{p_n\}\) is a sequence of nonnegative real numbers and \(k\) is a positive integer. The main purpose of the paper is to determine an upper bound of number of terms of semicycles of solutions of (*) under the condition NEWLINE\[NEWLINE \sum_{n=n_0}^\infty p_n\left(\left(\sum_{i=n+1}^{n+k}p_i\right)^{1/(k+1)} (k+1)-k\right)=\infty. NEWLINE\]NEWLINE The authors [Appl. Math. Lett. 13, No. 5, 59-66 (2000; Zbl 0961.39002)] gave an estimate of the numbers of terms of semicycles under the hypothesis NEWLINE\[NEWLINE\sum_{i=n-k}^{n-1}p_i\geq a>\left(\frac{k}{k+1}\right)^{k+1},\quad n\geq n_0,\tag{**} NEWLINE\]NEWLINE which also guarantees oscillation of all solutions of (*). Two examples presented at the end of the paper show that the new result is applicable also in the case when (**) does not hold and improves the result in the quoted paper.