Dichotomy results for delay differential equations with negative Schwarzian derivative (Q974550)

A \(C^{3}\)-map \(f\) of a closed interval \(\left[ a,b\right] \) into itself is called an \(SU\)-map if it has a unique critical point \(x_{0}\) such that \(f^{\prime}\left( x\right) >0\) for \(x<x_{0}\), \(f^{\prime}\left( x\right) <0\) for \(x>x_{0}\), and \(\left( Sf\right) \left( x\right) <0\) for all \(x\neq x_{0}\). The authors establish a dichotomy result for \(SU\)-maps with negative Schwarzian derivative which is then applied to several classes of functional differential equations including Wright and Mackey-Glass delay differential equations. In particular, easily computable bounds for the global attractor of a delay differential equation \[ x^{\prime}\left( t\right) =-ax\left( t\right) +f\left( x\left( t-\tau\right) \right),\tag{1} \] where \(a\geq0,\) \(\tau>0,\) and \(f\) is a continuous function, are obtained. This nice paper concludes with an interesting conjecture for (1), a discussion of related results and open problems.