  We study linear cocycles generated by nonautonomous delay equations in a
proper Hilbert space and their extensions (compound cocycles) to exterior
powers. Armed with the recently developed version of the Frequency Theorem, we
develop analytic perturbation techniques for comparison of spectral properties
(e.g., uniform exponential dichotomies) between such cocycles and cocycles
generated by stationary equations. In the basis, there lies an interplay
between regularity and structure in PDEs associated with delay equations. In
particular, the developed machinery results in effective robust criteria for
the absence of closed invariant contours on global attractors arising in
nonlinear problems.
