Stability of \(N\)-dimensional linear systems with multiple delays and application to synchronization (Q863012)

The authors consider the system of linear delay differential equation with multiple delays (1): \[ x_i'= \sum_{j=1}^{N}a_{ij} x_j(t-\tau_{ij}), \quad i=1,\dots,N, \] where \(0\leq\tau_{ij}\leq \tau_{\max}\), \(x_i\in \mathbb{R}\). The main statement of the paper is the following: If the eigenvalues of \(A=\{a_{ij}\}\) have negative real parts and the characteristic equation has no purely imaginary roots, then the origin of (1) is Lyapunov globally asymptotically stable. One must admit that this is a quite rough sufficient condition, since it implies the stability of the system for all values of \(\tau_{ij}\geq 0\).