Periodic, permanent, and extinct solutions to population models

Boundary value problems for functional-differential equations (34K10) Periodic solutions to functional-differential equations (34K13) Asymptotic theory of functional-differential equations (34K25) Population dynamics (general) (92D25)

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The aim of this interesting paper is to investigate the existence and nonexistence of positive solutions of the differential equation \[ u'(t) = \ell(u)(t) + \lambda F(u)(t),\text{ for a.a. }t\in[a, b] \] satisfying an abstract boundary condition of the form \(h(u)=0\). This equation is the general form of a great number of population models (such as Nicholson's blowflies and Mackey-Glass) studied in the literature and presented in the introduction of the paper. In this equation the items \(\ell:C([a,b],\mathbb{R})\to L([a,b],\mathbb{R})\) and \(h:C([a,b],\mathbb{R})\to\mathbb{R}\) are linear bounded operators and \(F:C([a,b],\mathbb{R})\to L([a,b],\mathbb{R})\) is a continuous operator. The coefficient \(\lambda\) is a parameter of the problem. The paper is organised as follows: Section 2 contains the notation used in the paper as well as the definitions of some spaces such as the set \(\mathcal{V}^+\) (= the set of all pairs \((\ell, h)\) such that, if some function \(u\in AC([a,b],\mathbb{R})\) with \(h(u)=0\) satisfies \(u'(t)\geq \ell(u)(t)\) a.e. in \([a,b]\), then it satisfies the inequality \(u(t)>0\) a.e. in \([a,b]\)), and the set \(\mathcal{W}^+\) (= the set of all pairs \((\ell, h)\) such for some \(c>0\) if a function \(u\in AC([a,b],\mathbb{R})\) with \(h(u)=0\) satisfies \(u'(t)\geq \ell(u)(t)\) a.e. in \([a,b]\), then \(u(t)\geq c\int_a^b[u'(s)-\ell(u)(s)]ds\), a.e. in \([a,b]\)). Similar are the definitions of the classes \(\mathcal{V}^-\) and \(\mathcal{W}^-\). In Section 3 the authors deal with the set \( \mathcal{V}^+\). In particular sufficient conditions are given to ensure that for any \((\ell, h)\in \mathcal{V}^+\) there exists a critical value of the parameter \(\lambda_c\geq 0\) such that the boundary value problem has a positive solution for all \(\lambda>\lambda_c\) and it has no positive solution for all \(\lambda<\lambda_c\). Also, the behaviour of the set \(S(\lambda)\) of all positive solutions is discussed in this section, where under some conditions it is proved that for \((\ell, h)\in\mathcal{V}^+\) it holds \(\lim_{\lambda\to+\infty}\inf\{\|u\|_C: u\in S(\lambda)\}=+\infty\) and, furthermore, under some additional condition, it holds \(\lim_{\lambda\to\lambda_c^+}\sup\{\|u\|_C: u\in S(\lambda)\}=0\). In subsection 3.3 an estimation of the critical value \(\lambda_c\) of the parameter is given by using a comparison of the solutions with constant functions. Section 4 deals with facts similar to those of Section 3, but with the class \(\mathcal{V}^-\). In Section 5 the authors present some applications of the abstract results to the equation \[ u'(t)=-\delta(t)u(t)-H(t)u(t-\sigma(t))+\lambda\sum_{k=1}^NP_k(t)u(t-\tau_k(t))f_k(u(t-\tau_k(t))). \] Conditions are given to guarantee some properties of the equation, such as the existence and non existence of periodic solutions, their dependence on the parameter, their boundedness and others. In subsection 5.4 the authors give a numerical estimation of the critical value \(\lambda_c\) for the equation \(u'(t)=(1+\sin t)u(t)+\lambda(2+\cos t)u(t-1)e^{-u(t-1)}\). In Section 6 the authors give a comparison with known results, while in the final Section 7 they present a discussion of their results and state some open problems concerning permanence of the positive solutions of some models and stability and global attractivity of positive periodic solutions of the general problem.

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