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Books > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > Calculus & mathematical analysis > Calculus of variations
This book attempts to present the concepts which underlie the
various optimization procedures which are commonly used. It is
written primarily for those scientists such as economists,
operations researchers, and en gineers whose main tools of analysis
involve optimization techniques and who possess a (not very sharp)
knowledge of one or one-and-a-half year's calculus through partial
differentiation and Taylor's theorem and some acquaintance with
elementary vector and matrix terminology. Such a scientist is
frequently confronted with expressions such as Lagrange multi
pliers, first-and second-order conditions, linear programming and
activity analysis, duality, the Kuhn-Tucker conditions, and, more
recently, dy namic programming and optimal control. He or she uses
or needs to use these optimization techniques, and would like to
feel more comfortable with them through better understanding of
their underlying mathematical concepts, but has no immediate use
for a formal theorem-proof treatment which quickly abstracts to a
general case of n variables and uses a style and terminology that
are discouraging to people who are not mathematics majors. The
emphasis of this book is on clarity and plausibility. Through
examples which are worked out step by step in detail, I hope to
illustrate some tools which will be useful to scientists when they
apply optimization techniques to their problems. Most of the
chapters may be read independently of each other-with the exception
of Chapter 6, which depends on Chapter 5. For instance, the reader
will find little or no difficulty in reading Chapter 8 without
having read the previous chapters."
At the close of the 1980s, the independent contributions of Yann
Brenier, Mike Cullen and John Mather launched a revolution in the
venerable field of optimal transport founded by G. Monge in the
18th century, which has made breathtaking forays into various other
domains of mathematics ever since. The author presents a broad
overview of this area, supplying complete and self-contained proofs
of all the fundamental results of the theory of optimal transport
at the appropriate level of generality. Thus, the book encompasses
the broad spectrum ranging from basic theory to the most recent
research results.
PhD students or researchers can read the entire book without any
prior knowledge of the field. A comprehensive bibliography with
notes that extensively discuss the existing literature underlines
the book's value as a most welcome reference text on this
subject.
This tutorial introduces readers to several variants of routing
problems with profits. In these routing problems each node has a
certain profit, and not all nodes need to be visited. Since the
orienteering problem (OP) is by far the most frequently studied
problem in this category of routing problems, the book mainly
focuses on the OP. In turn, other problems are presented as
variants of the OP, focusing on the similarities and differences.
The goal of the OP is to determine a subset of nodes to visit and
in which order, so that the total collected profit is maximized and
a given time budget is not exceeded.The book provides a
comprehensive review of variants of the OP, such as the team OP,
the team OP with time windows, the profitable tour problem, and the
prize-collecting travelling salesperson problem. In addition, it
presents mathematical models and techniques for solving these OP
variants and discusses their complexity. Several simple examples
and benchmark instances, together with their best-known results,
are also included. Finally, the book reviews the latest
applications of these problems in the fields of logistics, tourism
and others.
The most immediate one-dimensional variation problem is certainly
the problem of determining an arc of curve, bounded by two given
and having a smallest possible length. The problem of deter points
mining and investigating a surface with given boundary and with a
smallest possible area might then be considered as the most
immediate two-dimensional variation problem. The classical work,
concerned with the latter problem, is summed up in a beautiful and
enthusiastic manner in DARBOUX'S Theorie generale des surfaces,
vol. I, and in the first volume of the collected papers of H. A.
SCHWARZ. The purpose of the present report is to give a picture of
the progress achieved in this problem during the period beginning
with the Thesis of LEBESGUE (1902). Our problem has always been
considered as the outstanding example for the application of
Analysis and Geometry to each other, and the recent work in the
problem will certainly strengthen this opinion. It seems, in
particular, that this recent work will be a source of inspiration
to the Analyst interested in Calculus of Variations and to the
Geometer interested in the theory of the area and in the theory of
the conformal maps of general surfaces. These aspects of the
subject will be especially emphasized in this report. The report
consists of six Chapters. The first three Chapters are important
tools or concerned with investigations which yielded either
important ideas for the proofs of the existence theorems reviewed
in the last three Chapters."
This two-volume book offers a comprehensive treatment of the
probabilistic approach to mean field game models and their
applications. The book is self-contained in nature and includes
original material and applications with explicit examples
throughout, including numerical solutions. Volume I of the book is
entirely devoted to the theory of mean field games without a common
noise. The first half of the volume provides a self-contained
introduction to mean field games, starting from concrete
illustrations of games with a finite number of players, and ending
with ready-for-use solvability results. Readers are provided with
the tools necessary for the solution of forward-backward stochastic
differential equations of the McKean-Vlasov type at the core of the
probabilistic approach. The second half of this volume focuses on
the main principles of analysis on the Wasserstein space. It
includes Lions' approach to the Wasserstein differential calculus,
and the applications of its results to the analysis of stochastic
mean field control problems. Together, both Volume I and Volume II
will greatly benefit mathematical graduate students and researchers
interested in mean field games. The authors provide a detailed road
map through the book allowing different access points for different
readers and building up the level of technical detail. The
accessible approach and overview will allow interested researchers
in the applied sciences to obtain a clear overview of the state of
the art in mean field games.
Calculus Set Free: Infinitesimals to the Rescue is a
single-variable calculus textbook that incorporates the use of
infinitesimal methods. The procedures used throughout make many of
the calculations simpler and the concepts clearer for undergraduate
students, heightening success and easing a significant burden of
entry into STEM disciplines. This text features a student-friendly
exposition with ample marginal notes, examples, illustrations, and
more. The exercises include a wide range of difficulty levels,
stretching from very simple "rapid response" questions to the
occasional exercise meant to test knowledge. While some exercises
require the use of technology to work through, none are dependent
on any specific software. The answers to odd-numbered exercises in
the back of the book include both simplified and non-simplified
answers, hints, or alternative answers. Throughout the text, notes
in the margins include comments meant to supplement understanding,
sometimes including line-by-line commentary for worked examples.
Without sacrificing academic rigor, Calculus Set Free offers an
engaging style that helps students to solidify their understanding
on difficult theoretical calculus.
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