Advances in Difference Equations
Volume 2010 (2010), Article ID 478291, 31 pages
doi:10.1155/2010/478291

On regularly varying and history-dependent convergence rates of solutions of a Volterra equation with infinite memory

John A.D. Appleby

Edgeworth Centre for Financial Mathematics, School of Mathematical Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland

Abstract

We consider the rate of convergence to equilibrium of Volterra integrodifferential equations with infinite memory. We show that if the kernel of Volterra operator is regularly varying at infinity, and the initial history is regularly varying at minus infinity, then the rate of convergence to the equilibrium is regularly varying at infinity, and the exact pointwise rate of convergence can be determined in terms of the rate of decay of the kernel and the rate of growth of the initial history. The result is considered both for a linear Volterra integrodifferential equation as well as for the delay logistic equation from population biology.