Asymptotic behavior and oscillation of functional differential equations ✩

Asymptotic relations between the solutions of a linear autonomous functional differential equation and the solutions of the corresponding perturbed equation are established. In the scalar case, it is shown that the existence of a nonoscillatory solution of the perturbed equation often implies the existence of a real eigenvalue of the limiting equation. The proofs are based on a recent Perron type theorem for functional differential equations. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.