Positive periodic solutions of third-order neutral differential equations with delayed derivative terms

Abstract

By applying fixed point index theory on cones, the existence results of positive 2π-periodic solutions are obtained for the third-order neutral differential equation with delayed derivative terms in nonlinearity(x(t)−cx(t−δ))‴+a(t)x(t)=f(t,x(t),x(t−τ0),x′(t−τ1),x″(t−τ2)),t∈R under the condition that the nonlinear term f satisfies superlinear or sublinear growth, where constants δ>0,|c|<1, a:R→(0,+∞) and f:R×[0,+∞)2×R2→[0,+∞) are continuous functions which are 2π periodic in t and constants τ0,τ1,τ2>0.