On stability of linear differential equations with commensurate delayed arguments

Abstract The paper studies a class of linear differential equations with several delayed arguments formed by iterates of a given function. The main result of this paper improves the existing stability criteria and formulates an effective necessary and sufficient condition relating stability of the studied differential equations to stability of some auxiliary difference equations. In the case of a two-delay equation, this condition is presented explicitly in terms of the equation’s parameters. As an accompanying result, the asymptotic decay rate of the solutions is described as well.