Applications of Sturm sequences to bifurcation analysis of delay differential equation models

This paper formalizes a method used by several others in the analysis of biological models involving delay differential equations. In such a model, the characteristic equation about a steady state is transcendental. This paper shows that the analysis of the bifurcation due to the introduction of the delay term can be reduced to finding whether a related polynomial equation has simple positive real roots. After this result has been established, we utilize Sturm sequences to determine whether a polynomial equation has positive real roots. This work has extended the stability results found in previous papers and provides a novel theorem about stability switches for low degree characteristic equations. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.