In the mathematical description of a physical or biological process, it is a common practice assume that the future behavior of Ihe process considered depends only on the present slate, and therefore can be described by a finite sct of ordinary diffe rential equations. This is satisfactory for a large class of practical systems. However. the existence of lime-delay elements, such as material or infonnation transport, of tcn renders such description unsatisfactory in accounting for important behaviors of many practical systems. Indeed. due largely to the current lack of effective metho...

This book is a self-contained presentation of the background and progress of the study of time-delay systems, a subject with broad applications to a number of areas.