A dichotomy for a class of cyclic delay systems

Two complementary analyses of a cyclic negative feedback system with delay are considered in this paper. The first analysis applies the work by Sontag, Angeli, Enciso and others regarding monotone control systems under negative feedback, and it implies the global attractiveness towards an equilibrium for arbitrary delays. The second one concerns the existence of a Hopf bifurcation with respect to the delay parameter, and it implies the existence of nonconstant periodic solutions for special delay values. A key idea is the use of the Schwarzian derivative, and its application for the study of Hill function nonlinearities. The positive feedback case is also addressed.