Analysis of anNth-order nonlinear differential-delay equation

The problem of a nonlinear dynamical system with delay and an overall response time which is distributed among N individual components is analyzed. Such a system can generally be modeled by an Nth-order nonlinear differential delay equation. A linear-stability analysis as well as a numerical simulation of that equation are performed and a comparison is made with the experimental results. Finally, a parallel is established between the first-order differential equation with delay and the Nth-order differential equation without delay.