Oscillation results via comparison theorems for fourth-order delay three-terms difference equations (Q6155554)

Denote \(\mathbb{N}\) the set of the nonnegative integers and let \(\tau, n_{0} \in \mathbb{N}\) be fixed. Let further \(p\) and \(q\) be positive sequences. The main aim if this paper is to investigate the oscillation of the following linear fourth-order difference equation \[ \Delta^{4}x(n)+p(n)\Delta x(n+1)+q(n)x(n-\tau)=0\;\;\;\; (E)\] for all \(n\in \mathbb{N}_{n_{0}}\), where \(\mathbb{N}_{n_{0}}= \left\{ n\in \mathbb{N} \, \vert \, n\geq n_{0}\right\}\). \par A solution of the equation (E) is said to be non-oscillatory if it is eventually positive or eventually negative. Otherwise, the solution is called oscillatory. Further, we call equation (E) oscillatory if all its solutions are oscillatory.\par At first the authors show that equation (E) can be rewritten in an equivalent form as a two-terms equation with quasidifferences. After that they provide sufficient conditions for the oscillation of all solutions of equation (E) in terms of the two associated first order delay difference equations. The obtained results for these delay difference equations enables to deduce new, easily verifiable oscillation results for equation (E). \par The main result of the paper is Theorem 2.10. According to this, if \[\sum_{n=n_{0}}^{\infty}n^{2}p(n)<\infty,\; \sum_{n=n_{0}}^{\infty}nq(n)<\infty,\; \lim_{n\to \infty}n^{3}q(n)=\infty\] then equation (E) is oscillatory.