Well-posedness and asymptotic behavior of difference equations with a time-dependent delay and applications

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the well-posedness and asymptotic behavior of difference equations of the form $x(t) = A x(t - \tau(t))$, $t \geq 0$, where the unknown function $x$ takes values in $\mathbb R^d$ for some positive integer $d$, $A$ is a $d \times d$ matrix with real coefficients, and $\tau\colon [0, +\infty) \to (0, +\infty)$ is a time-dependent delay. We provide our investigations for three spaces of functions: continuous, regulated, and $L^p$. We compare our results for these three cases, showing how the hypotheses change according to the space that we are treating. Finally, we provide applications of our results to difference equations with state-dependent delays for the cases of continuous and regulated function spaces, as well as to transport equations in one space dimension with time-dependent velocity.