Abstract

This paper is concerned with a class of functional differential equations whose argument transforms are involutions. In contrast to the earlier works in this area, which have used only involutions with a fixed point, we also admit involutions without a fixed point. In the first case, an initial value problem for a differential equation with involution is reduced to an initial value problem for a higher order ordinary differential equation. In our case, either two initial conditions or two boundary conditions are necessary for a solution; the equation is then reduced to a boundary value problem for a higher order ODE.