Computable error bounds for approximate periodic solutions of autonomous delay differential equations (Q842203)

The paper recovers the existence of an exact periodic solution to an autonomous delay differential equation (DDE) from knowledge of a periodic solution to an approximation (such as harmonic balance, Galerkin approximation or other numerical methods). The statement is: given a ``non-critial'' periodic solution to the approximate problem with a sufficiently small residual error then an exact periodic solution exists in a neighborhood of the approximate solution. The error bound then estimates numerically the difference between approximation and exact solution. Non-criticality is defined in terms of characteristic multipliers of the variational equation along the approximate periodic solution: only a single simple multiplier close to unity is permitted. The main technical restriction of the method for the moment is that it can only be applied to DDEs with a single constant delay. The computation of the error bound is then demonstrated for the Van der Pol equation with a delayed damping term.