Existence of positive periodic solutions of higher-order functional difference equations. (Q742897)

The authors consider the functional difference equation \(x(n+m+k)-a(n+m)x(n+m)-b(n)x(n+k)+a(n)b(n)x(n)+f(n,x(n-\tau (n)))=0,\) where \(a,b:\mathbb {Z}\to (0,\infty )\) with \(a(n)\neq 1\), \(b(n)\neq 1\) and \(a(n+\omega )=a(n)\), \(b(n+\omega )=b(n)\), \(\tau :\mathbb {Z}\to \mathbb {Z}\), \(\tau (n+\omega )=\tau (n)\), \(f(n+\omega ,u)=f(n,u)\) for any \(u\in \mathbb {R}\), \(k,\omega ,m\in \mathbb {N}\). Conditions are established which guarantee that there exists a positive periodic solution of this equation. An important role in the proof is played by a fixed point theorem in a cone. The result is related to the work by \textit{W. Wang} and \textit{X. Chen} [Appl. Math. Lett. 23, No. 12, 1468--1472 (2010; Zbl 1205.39016)], where the coefficients \(a(n),b(n)\) are assumed to be constant.