In recent years many researchers in material science have focused their attention on the study of composite materials, equilibrium of crystals and crack distribution in continua subject to loads. At the same time several new issues in computer vision and image processing have been studied in depth. The understanding of many of these problems has made significant progress thanks to new methods developed in calculus of variations, geometric measure theory and partial differential equations. In particular, new technical tools have been introduced and successfully applied. For example, in order to describe the geometrical complexity of unknown patterns, a new class of problems in calculus of variations has been introduced together with a suitable functional setting: the free-discontinuity problems and the special BV and BH functions. The conference held at Villa Olmo on Lake Como in September 1994 spawned successful discussion of these topics among mathematicians, experts in computer science and material scientists.

Sheaf Theory is modern, active field of mathematics at the intersection of algebraic topology, algebraic geometry and partial differential equations. This volume offers a comprehensive and self-contained treatment of Sheaf Theory from the basis up, with emphasis on the microlocal point of view.

From the reviews:

"Clearly and precisely written, and contains many interesting ideas: it describes a whole, largely new branch of mathematics." Bulletin of the L.M.S.

This book introduces readers to the basic concepts of and latest findings in the area of differential equations with uncertain factors. It covers the analytic method and numerical method for solving uncertain differential equations, as well as their applications in the field of finance. Furthermore, the book provides a number of new potential research directions for uncertain differential equation. It will be of interest to researchers, engineers and students in the fields of mathematics, information science, operations research, industrial engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence, automation, economics, and management science.

The present book builds upon the earlier work of J. Hale, "Theory of Functional Differential Equations" published in 1977. The authors have attempted to maintain the spirit of that book and have retained approximately one-third of the material intact. One major change was a completely new presentation of linear systems (Chapter 6-9) for retarded and neutral functional differential equations. The theory of dissipative systems (Chapter 4) and global attractors was thoroughly revamped as well as the invariant manifold theory (Chapter 10) near equilibrium points and periodic orbits. A more complete theory of neutral equations is presented (Chapters 1,2,3,9,10). Chapter 12 is also entirely new and contains a guide to active topics of research. In the sections on supplementary remarks, the authors have included many references to recent literature, but, of course, not nearly all, because the subject is so extensive.

In recent years, new algorithms for dealing with rings of differential operators have been discovered and implemented. A main tool is the theory of Gröbner bases, which is reexamined here from the point of view of geometric deformations. Perturbation techniques have a long tradition in analysis; Gröbner deformations of left ideals in the Weyl algebra are the algebraic analogue to classical perturbation techniques. The algorithmic methods introduced here are particularly useful for studying the systems of multidimensional hypergeometric PDEs introduced by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. The Gröbner deformation of these GKZ hypergeometric systems reduces problems concerning hypergeometric functions to questions about commutative monomial ideals, and leads to an unexpected interplay between analysis and combinatorics. This book contains a number of original research results on holonomic systems and hypergeometric functions, and raises many open problems for future research in this area.

Recently, a great deal of progress has been made in the modeling and understanding of processes with nonlinear dynamics, even when only time series data are available. Modern reconstruction theory deals with creating nonlinear dynamical models from data and is at the heart of this improved understanding. Most of the work has been done by dynamicists, but for the subject to reach maturity, statisticians and signal processing engineers need to provide input both to the theory and to the practice. The book brings together different approaches to nonlinear time series analysis in order to begin a synthesis that will lead to better theory and practice in all the related areas. This book describes the state of the art in nonlinear dynamical reconstruction theory. The chapters are based upon a workshop held at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge University, UK, in late 1998. The book's chapters present theory and methods topics by leading researchers in applied and theoretical nonlinear dynamics, statistics, probability, and systems theory. Features and topics: * disentangling uncertainty and error: the predictability of nonlinear systems * achieving good nonlinear models * delay reconstructions: dynamics vs. statistics * introduction to Monte Carlo Methods for Bayesian Data Analysis * latest results in extracting dynamical behavior via Markov Models * data compression, dynamics and stationarity Professionals, researchers, and advanced graduates in nonlinear dynamics, probability, optimization, and systems theory will find the book a useful resource and guide to current developments in the subject.

A collection of five surveys on dynamical systems, indispensable for graduate students and researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics. Written in the modern language of differential geometry, the book covers all the new differential geometric and Lie-algebraic methods currently used in the theory of integrable systems.

This volume collects the edited and reviewed contributions presented in the 6th iTi Conference in Bertinoro, covering fundamental and applied aspects in turbulence. In the spirit of the iTi conference, the volume has been produced after the conference so that the authors had the possibility to incorporate comments and discussions raised during the meeting. In the present book the contributions have been structured according to the topics : I Theory II Wall bounded flows III Particles in flows IV Free flows V Complex flows The volume is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Konrad Bajer who prematurely passed away in Warsaw on August 29, 2014.

This book provides an introduction to the qualitative theory and applications of partial functional differential equations from the viewpoint of dynamical systems. Many fundamental results and methods scattered throughout research journals are described, various applications to population growth in a heterogeneous environment are presented and a comprehensive bibliography from both mathematical and biological sources is provided. The main emphasis of the book is on reaction-diffusion equations with delayed nonlinear reaction terms and on the joint effect of the time delay and spatial diffusion on the spatial-temporal patterns of the considered systems. The presentation is self-contained and accessible to the nonspecialist. The book should be of value to graduate students and researchers in dynamical systems, differential equations, semigroup theory, nonlinear analysis and mathematical biology. The style of the presentation appeals especially to people trained and interested in the qualitative theory of ordinary/functional/partial differential equations.

In the last century many problems which arose in the science, engineer ing and technology literature involved nonlinear complex phenomena. In many situations these natural phenomena give rise to (i). ordinary differ ential equations which are singular in the independent and/or dependent variables together with initial and boundary conditions, and (ii). Volterra and Fredholm type integral equations. As one might expect general exis tence results were difficult to establish for the problems which arose. Indeed until the early 1990's only very special examples were examined and these examples were usually tackled using some special device, which was usually only applicable to the particular problem under investigation. However in the 1990's new results in inequality and fixed point theory were used to present a very general existence theory for singular problems. This mono graph presents an up to date account of the literature on singular problems. One of our aims also is to present recent theory on singular differential and integral equations to a new and wider audience. The book presents a compact, thorough, and self-contained account for singular problems. An important feature of this book is that we illustrate how easily the theory can be applied to discuss many real world examples of current interest. In Chapter 1 we study differential equations which are singular in the independent variable. We begin with some standard notation in Section 1. 2 and introduce LP-Caratheodory functions. Some fixed point theorems, the Arzela- Ascoli theorem and Banach's theorem are also stated here."

This book is devoted to applications of singularity theory in mathematics and physics, covering a broad spectrum of topics and problems. "The book contains a huge amount of information from all the branches of Singularity Theory, presented in a very attractive way, with lots of inspiring pictures." --ZENTRALBLATT MATH

This book explores new difference schemes for approximating the solutions of regular and singular perturbation boundary-value problems for PDEs. The construction is based on the exact difference scheme and Taylor's decomposition on the two or three points, which permits investigation of differential equations with variable coefficients and regular and singular perturbation boundary value problems.

Many problems in mathematical physics rely heavily on the use of elliptical partial differential equations, and boundary integral methods play a significant role in solving these equations."Stationary Oscillations of Elastic Plates"" "studies the latter in the context ofstationaryvibrations of thin elastic plates. The techniquespresented herereduce the complexity of classical elasticity to a system of two independent variables, modeling problemsof flexural-vibrational elastic body deformation with the aid of eigenfrequencies and simplifying them to manageable, uniquely solvable integral equations.

The book isintended foran audiencewith a knowledge of advanced calculus and some familiarity with functional analysis. It is a valuable resource for professionals in pure and applied mathematics, and for theoretical physicists and mechanical engineerswhose work involveselastic plates. Graduate students in these fieldscan also benefit from the monograph as a supplementary text for courses relating to theories of elasticity or flexural vibrations."

Homogenization is a method for modelling processes in complex structures. These processes are far too complex for analytic and numerical methods and are best described by PDEs with rapidly oscillating coefficients - a technique that has become increasingly important in the last three decades due to its multiple applications in the areas of optimization, radiophysics, filtration theory, rheology, elasticity theory, and other domains of mechanics, physics, and technology. The present monograph is a comprehensive study of homogenization problems, describing various physical processes in micro-inhomogeneous media. A variety of techniques are used - specifically functional analysis, the spectral theory for differential operators, the Laplace transform, and, most importantly, a new variational PDE method for studying the asymptotic behavior of solutions of stationary boundary value problems. Along with complete proofs of all main results, numerous examples of typical structures of micro-inhomogeneous media with their corresponding homogenized models are provided. Graduate students, applied mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and specialists in mechanics will benefit from this monograp

This substantially revised second edition teaches the bifurcation of asymptotic solutions to evolution problems governed by nonlinear differential equations. Written not just for mathematicians, it appeals to the widest audience of learners, including engineers, biologists, chemists, physicists and economists. For this reason, it uses only well-known methods of classical analysis at foundation level, while the applications and examples are specially chosen to be as varied as possible.

This book is the first systematic presentation of the theory of dynamical systems under the influence of randomness. It includes products of random mappings as well as random and stochastic differential equations. The basic mulitplicative ergodic theorem is presented and provides a random substitute for linear algebra. On its basis random invariant manifolds are constructed, systems are simplified by smooth random coordinate transformations (random normal forms), and qualitative changes in families of random systems (random bifurcation theory) are studied. Numerous instructive examples are treated analytically or numerically. The main intention, however, is to present a reliable and rather complete source of reference which lays the foundation for future work and applications.

This monograph describes global propagation of regular nonlinear hyperbolic waves described by first-order quasilinear hyperbolic systems in one dimension. The exposition is clear, concise, and unfolds systematically beginning with introductory material and leading to the original research of the authors. Topics are motivated with a number of physical examples from the areas of elastic materials, one-dimensional gas dynamics, and waves. Aimed at researchers and graduate students in partial differential equations and related topics, this book will stimulate further research and help readers further understand important aspects and recent progress of regular nonlinear hyperbolic waves.

Infinite interval problems abound in nature and yet until now there has been no book dealing with such problems. The main reason for this seems to be that until the 1970's for the infinite interval problem all the theoretical results available required rather technical hypotheses and were applicable only to narrowly defined classes of problems. Thus scientists mainly offer d and used special devices to construct the numerical solution assuming tacitly the existence of a solution. In recent years a mixture of classical analysis and modern fixed point theory has been employed to study the existence of solutions to infinite interval problems. This has resulted in widely applicable results. This monograph is a cumulation mainly of the authors' research over a period of more than ten years and offers easily verifiable existence criteria for differential, difference and integral equations over the infinite interval. An important feature of this monograph is that we illustrate almost all the results with examples. The plan of this monograph is as follows. In Chapter 1 we present the existence theory for second order boundary value problems on infinite intervals. We begin with several examples which model real world phenom ena. A brief history of the infinite interval problem is also included. We then present general existence results for several different types of boundary value problems. Here we note that for the infinite interval problem only two major approaches are available in the literature."

Bifurcation theory and catastrophe theory are two well-known areas within the field of dynamical systems. Both are studies of smooth systems, focusing on properties that seem to be manifestly non-smooth. Bifurcation theory is concerned with the sudden changes that occur in a system when one or more parameters are varied. Examples of such are familiar to students of differential equations, from phase portraits. Understanding the bifurcations of the differential equations that describe real physical systems provides important information about the behavior of the systems. Catastrophe theory became quite famous during the 1970's, mostly because of the sensation caused by the usually less than rigorous applications of its principal ideas to "hot topics," such as the characterization of personalities and the difference between a "genius" and a "maniac." Catastrophe theory is accurately described as singularity theory and its (genuine) applications. The authors of this book, previously published as Volume 5 of the Encyclopaedia, have given a masterly exposition of these two theories, with penetrating insight.

A self-contained and systematic development of an aspect of analysis which deals with the theory of fundamental solutions for differential operators, and their applications to boundary value problems of mathematical physics, applied mathematics, and engineering, with the related computational aspects.

Whether costs are to be reduced, profits to be maximized, or scarce resources to be used wisely, optimization methods are available to guide decision making. In online optimization the main issue is incomplete data, and the scientific challenge: How well can an online algorithm perform? Can one guarantee solution quality, even without knowing all data in advance? In real-time optimization there is an additional requirement, decisions have to be computed very fast in relation to the time frame of the instance we consider. Online and real-time optimization problems occur in all branches of optimization. These areas have developed their own techniques but they are addressing the same issues: quality, stability, and robustness of the solutions. To fertilize this emerging topic of optimization theory and to foster cooperation between the different branches of optimization, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has supported a Priority Programme "Online Optimization of Large Systems".

This volume is a collection of papers devoted to the 70th birthday of Professor Vladimir Rabinovich. The opening article (by Stefan Samko) includes a short biography of Vladimir Rabinovich, along with some personal recollections and bibliography of his work. It is followed by twenty research and survey papers in various branches of analysis (pseudodifferential operators and partial differential equations, Toeplitz, Hankel, and convolution type operators, variable Lebesgue spaces, etc.) close to Professor Rabinovich's research interests. Many of them are written by participants of the International workshop Analysis, Operator Theory, and Mathematical Physics (Ixtapa, Mexico, January 23 27, 2012) having a long history of scientific collaboration with Vladimir Rabinovich, and are partially based on the talks presented there.The volume will be of great interest to researchers and graduate students in differential equations, operator theory, functional and harmonic analysis, and mathematical physics. "

(NOTES)This text focuses on the topics which are an essential part of the engineering mathematics course:ordinary differential equations, vector calculus, linear algebra and partial differential equations. Advantages over competing texts: 1. The text has a large number of examples and problems - a typical section having 25 quality problems directly related to the text. 2. The authors use a practical engineering approach based upon solving equations. All ideas and definitions are introduced from this basic viewpoint, which allows engineers in their second year to understand concepts that would otherwise be impossibly abstract. Partial differential equations are introduced in an engineering and science context based upon modelling of physical problems. A strength of the manuscript is the vast number of applications to real-world problems, each treated completely and in sufficient depth to be self-contained. 3. Numerical analysis is introduced in the manuscript at a completely elementary calculus level. In fact, numerics are advertised as just an extension of the calculus and used generally as enrichment, to help communicate the role of mathematics in engineering applications. 4.The authors have used and updated the book as a course text over a 10 year period. 5. Modern outline, as contrasted to the outdated outline by Kreysig and Wylie. 6. This is now a one year course. The text is shorter and more readable than the current reference type manuals published all at around 1300-1500 pages.

This is the first book to systematically state the fundamental theory of integrability and its development of ordinary differential equations with emphasis on the Darboux theory of integrability and local integrability together with their applications. It summarizes the classical results of Darboux integrability and its modern development together with their related Darboux polynomials and their applications in the reduction of Liouville and elementary integrabilty and in the center-focus problem, the weakened Hilbert 16th problem on algebraic limit cycles and the global dynamical analysis of some realistic models in fields such as physics, mechanics and biology. Although it can be used as a textbook for graduate students in dynamical systems, it is intended as supplementary reading for graduate students from mathematics, physics, mechanics and engineering in courses related to the qualitative theory, bifurcation theory and the theory of integrability of dynamical systems.

Boundary element methods are very important for solving boundary value problems in PDEs. Many boundary value problems of partial differential equations can be reduced into boundary integral equations by the natural boundary reduction. In this book the natural boundary integral method, suggested and developed by Feng and Yu, is introduced systematically. It is quite different from popular boundary element methods and has many distinctive advantages. The variational principle is conserved after the natural boundary reduction, and some useful properties are also preserved faithfully. Moreover, it can be applied directly and naturally in the coupling method and the domain decomposition method of finite and boundary elements. Most of the material in this book has only appeared in the author's previous papers. Compared with its Chinese edition (Science Press, Beijing, 1993), many new research results such as the domain decomposition methods based on the natural boundary reduction are added.