It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is Approach your problems from the right end that they can't see the problem. and begin with the answers. Then one day, perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Father 'The Hermit Clad in Crane Feathers' in R. Brown 'The point of a Pin'. van Gulik's The Chinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the "tree" of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be com pletely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of sophistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging subdisciplines as "experimental mathematics," "CFD," "completely integrable systems," "chaos, synergetics and large-scale order," which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics."

The new series, International Mathematical Series founded by Kluwer / Plenum Publishers and the Russian publisher, Tamara Rozhkovskaya is published simultaneously in English and in Russian and starts with two volumes dedicated to the famous Russian mathematician Professor Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya, on the occasion of her 80th birthday.

O.A. Ladyzhenskaya graduated from the Moscow State University. But throughout her career she has been closely connected with St. Petersburg where she works at the V.A. Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Many generations of mathematicians have become familiar with the nonlinear theory of partial differential equations reading the books on quasilinear elliptic and parabolic equations written by O.A. Ladyzhenskaya with V.A. Solonnikov and N.N. Uraltseva.

Her results and methods on the Navier-Stokes equations, and other mathematical problems in the theory of viscous fluids, nonlinear partial differential equations and systems, the regularity theory, some directions of computational analysis are well known. So it is no surprise that these two volumes attracted leading specialists in partial differential equations and mathematical physics from more than 15 countries, who present their new results in the various fields of mathematics in which the results, methods, and ideas of O.A. Ladyzhenskaya played a fundamental role.

Nonlinear Problems in Mathematical Physics and Related Topics I presents new results from distinguished specialists in the theory of partial differential equations and analysis. A large part of the material is devoted to the Navier-Stokes equations, which play an important role in the theory of viscous fluids. In particular, the existence of a local strong solution (in the sense of Ladyzhenskaya) to the problem describing some special motion in a Navier-Stokes fluid is established. Ladyzhenskaya's results on axially symmetric solutions to the Navier-Stokes fluid are generalized and solutions with fast decay of nonstationary Navier-Stokes equations in the half-space are stated. Application of the Fourier-analysis to the study of the Stokes wave problem and some interesting properties of the Stokes problem are presented. The nonstationary Stokes problem is also investigated in nonconvex domains and some Lp-estimates for the first-order derivatives of solutions are obtained. New results in the theory of fully nonlinear equations are presented. Some asymptotics are derived for elliptic operators with strongly degenerated symbols. New results are also presented for variational problems connected with phase transitions of means in controllable dynamical systems, nonlocal problems for quasilinear parabolic equations, elliptic variational problems with nonstandard growth, and some sufficient conditions for the regularity of lateral boundary.

Additionally, new results are presented on area formulas, estimates for eigenvalues in the case of the weighted Laplacian on Metric graph, application of the direct Lyapunov method in continuum mechanics, singular perturbation property of capillary surfaces, partially free boundary problem for parametric double integrals.

The main topics reflect the fields of mathematics in which Professor O.A. Ladyzhenskaya obtained her most influential results.

One of the main topics considered in the volume is the Navier-Stokes equations. This subject is investigated in many different directions. In particular, the existence and uniqueness results are obtained for the Navier-Stokes equations in spaces of low regularity. A sufficient condition for the regularity of solutions to the evolution Navier-Stokes equations in the three-dimensional case is derived and the stabilization of a solution to the Navier-Stokes equations to the steady-state solution and the realization of stabilization by a feedback boundary control are discussed in detail. Connections between the regularity problem for the Navier-Stokes equations and a backward uniqueness problem for the heat operator are also clarified.

Generalizations and modified Navier-Stokes equations modeling various physical phenomena such as the mixture of fluids and isotropic turbulence are also considered. Numerical results for the Navier-Stokes equations, as well as for the porous medium equation and the heat equation, obtained by the diffusion velocity method are illustrated by computer graphs.

Some other models describing various processes in continuum mechanics are studied from the mathematical point of view. In particular, a structure theorem for divergence-free vector fields in the plane for a problem arising in a micromagnetics model is proved. The absolute continuity of the spectrum of the elasticity operator appearing in a problem for an isotropic periodic elastic medium with constant shear modulus (the Hill body) is established. Time-discretizationproblems for generalized Newtonian fluids are discussed, the unique solvability of the initial-value problem for the inelastic homogeneous Boltzmann equation for hard spheres, with a diffusive term representing a random background acceleration is proved and some qualitative properties of the solution are studied. An approach to mathematical statements based on the Maxwell model and illustrated by the Lavrent'ev problem on the wave formation caused by explosion welding is presented. The global existence and uniqueness of a solution to the initial boundary-value problem for the equations arising in the modelling of the tension-driven Marangoni convection and the existence of a minimal global attractor are established. The existence results, regularity properties, and pointwise estimates for solutions to the Cauchy problem for linear and nonlinear Kolmogorov-type operators arising in diffusion theory, probability, and finance, are proved. The existence of minimizers for the energy functional in the Skyrme model for the low-energy interaction of pions which describes elementary particles as spatially localized solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations is also proved.

Several papers are devoted to the study of nonlinear elliptic and parabolic operators. Versions of the mean value theorems and Harnack inequalities are studied for the heat equation, and connections with the so-called growth theorems for more general second-order elliptic and parabolic equations in the divergence or nondivergence form are investigated. Additionally, qualitative properties of viscosity solutions of fully nonlinear partial differential inequalities of elliptic and degenerate elliptic type areclarified. Some uniqueness results for identification of quasilinear elliptic and parabolic equations are presented and the existence of smooth solutions of a class of Hessian equations on a compact Riemannian manifold without imposing any curvature restrictions on the manifold is established.

The new series, International Mathematical Series founded by Kluwer / Plenum Publishers and the Russian publisher, Tamara Rozhkovskaya is published simultaneously in English and in Russian and starts with two volumes dedicated to the famous Russian mathematician Professor Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya, on the occasion of her 80th birthday. O.A. Ladyzhenskaya graduated from the Moscow State University. But throughout her career she has been closely connected with St. Petersburg where she works at the V.A. Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Many generations of mathematicians have become familiar with the nonlinear theory of partial differential equations reading the books on quasilinear elliptic and parabolic equations written by O.A. Ladyzhenskaya with V.A. Solonnikov and N.N. Uraltseva. Her results and methods on the Navier-Stokes equations, and other mathematical problems in the theory of viscous fluids, nonlinear partial differential equations and systems, the regularity theory, some directions of computational analysis are well known. So it is no surprise that these two volumes attracted leading specialists in partial differential equations and mathematical physics from more than 15 countries, who present their new results in the various fields of mathematics in which the results, methods, and ideas of O.A. Ladyzhenskaya played a fundamental role. Nonlinear Problems in Mathematical Physics and Related Topics I presents new results from distinguished specialists in the theory of partial differential equations and analysis. A large part of the material is devoted to the Navier-Stokes equations, which play an important role in the theory of viscous fluids. In particular, the existence of a local strong solution (in the sense of Ladyzhenskaya) to the problem describing some special motion in a Navier-Stokes fluid is established. Ladyzhenskaya's results on axially symmetric solutions to the Navier-Stokes fluid are generalized and solutions with fast decay of nonstationary Navier-Stokes equations in the half-space are stated. Application of the Fourier-analysis to the study of the Stokes wave problem and some interesting properties of the Stokes problem are presented. The nonstationary Stokes problem is also investigated in nonconvex domains and some Lp-estimates for the first-order derivatives of solutions are obtained. New results in the theory of fully nonlinear equations are presented. Some asymptotics are derived for elliptic operators with strongly degenerated symbols. New results are also presented for variational problems connected with phase transitions of means in controllable dynamical systems, nonlocal problems for quasilinear parabolic equations, elliptic variational problems with nonstandard growth, and some sufficient conditions for the regularity of lateral boundary. Additionally, new results are presented on area formulas, estimates for eigenvalues in the case of the weighted Laplacian on Metric graph, application of the direct Lyapunov method in continuum mechanics, singular perturbation property of capillary surfaces, partially free boundary problem for parametric double integrals.

The main topics reflect the fields of mathematics in which Professor O.A. Ladyzhenskaya obtained her most influential results. One of the main topics considered in the volume is the Navier-Stokes equations. This subject is investigated in many different directions. In particular, the existence and uniqueness results are obtained for the Navier-Stokes equations in spaces of low regularity. A sufficient condition for the regularity of solutions to the evolution Navier-Stokes equations in the three-dimensional case is derived and the stabilization of a solution to the Navier-Stokes equations to the steady-state solution and the realization of stabilization by a feedback boundary control are discussed in detail. Connections between the regularity problem for the Navier-Stokes equations and a backward uniqueness problem for the heat operator are also clarified. Generalizations and modified Navier-Stokes equations modeling various physical phenomena such as the mixture of fluids and isotropic turbulence are also considered. Numerical results for the Navier-Stokes equations, as well as for the porous medium equation and the heat equation, obtained by the diffusion velocity method are illustrated by computer graphs. Some other models describing various processes in continuum mechanics are studied from the mathematical point of view. In particular, a structure theorem for divergence-free vector fields in the plane for a problem arising in a micromagnetics model is proved. The absolute continuity of the spectrum of the elasticity operator appearing in a problem for an isotropic periodic elastic medium with constant shear modulus (the Hill body) is established. Time-discretization problems for generalized Newtonian fluids are discussed, the unique solvability of the initial-value problem for the inelastic homogeneous Boltzmann equation for hard spheres, with a diffusive term representing a random background acceleration is proved and some qualitative properties of the solution are studied. An approach to mathematical statements based on the Maxwell model and illustrated by the Lavrent'ev problem on the wave formation caused by explosion welding is presented. The global existence and uniqueness of a solution to the initial boundary-value problem for the equations arising in the modelling of the tension-driven Marangoni convection and the existence of a minimal global attractor are established. The existence results, regularity properties, and pointwise estimates for solutions to the Cauchy problem for linear and nonlinear Kolmogorov-type operators arising in diffusion theory, probability, and finance, are proved. The existence of minimizers for the energy functional in the Skyrme model for the low-energy interaction of pions which describes elementary particles as spatially localized solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations is also proved. Several papers are devoted to the study of nonlinear elliptic and parabolic operators. Versions of the mean value theorems and Harnack inequalities are studied for the heat equation, and connections with the so-called growth theorems for more general second-order elliptic and parabolic equations in the divergence or nondivergence form are investigated. Additionally, qualitative properties of viscosity solutions of fully nonlinear partial differential inequalities of elliptic and degenerate elliptic type are clarified. Some uniqueness results for identification of quasilinear elliptic and parabolic equations are presented and the existence of smooth solutions of a class of Hessian equations on a compact Riemannian manifold without imposing any curvature restrictions on the manifold is established.