Convergence of solutions for two delays Volterra integral equations in the critical case (Q990780)

Consider the delay Volterra equation \[ y(t)=f(t)+\int_{t-\tau}^{t-\delta}k(t,s)g(y(s))ds,\quad t\geq\tau \] (with initial value \(y|_{[0,\tau]}\)), where \(g\) satisfies a Lipschitz condition with constant \(L\). Assuming that \(L|k(t,s)|\leq\beta(s+\delta)\) with \(\beta(t)\leq(\tau-\delta)^{-1}-c/t\) it is shown that any two solutions \(y,y_*\) of the equation satisfy \(|y(t)-y_*(t)|\to0\) as \(t\to\infty\), and actually the difference can be estimated by \(z(t)-z(t-(\tau-\delta))\to0\) where \(z\) is a solution of the auxiliary linear delay differential equation \(z'(t)=\beta(t)(z(t-\delta)-z(t-\tau))\). The case is critical in the sense that if, roughly speaking, all inequalities in the assumptions are inverted (in particular, if \(L\) denotes the lower Lipschitz constant of \(g\)) there holds a similar lower bound for \(|y(t)-y_*(t)|\).