OSCILLATION AND NONOSCILLATION CRITERIA FOR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF SECOND ORDER

We give necessary and sufficient conditions such that the homogeneous differential equations of the type: $$(r(t)x^{\prime}(t))^{\prime}+q(t)x^{\prime}(t)+p(t)x(t)=0$$ are nonoscillatory where $r(t)$ > 0 for $t{\in}I=[{\alpha},{\infty})$, ${\alpha}$ > 0. Under the suitable conditions we show that the above equation is nonoscillatory if and only if for ${\gamma}$ > 0, $$(r(t)x^{\prime}(t))^{\prime}+q(t)x^{\prime}(t)+p(t)x(t-{\gamma})=0$$ is nonoscillatory. We obtain several comparison theorems.