The book investigates classical and more recent methods of study for the asymptotic behavior of dissipative continuous dynamical systems with applications to ordinary and partial differential equations, the main question being convergence (or not) of the solutions to an equilibrium. After reviewing the basic concepts of topological dynamics and the definition of gradient-like systems on a metric space, the authors present a comprehensive exposition of stability theory relying on the so-called linearization method. For the convergence problem itself, when the set of equilibria is infinite, the only general results that do not require very special features of the non-linearities are presently consequences of a gradient inequality discovered by S. Lojasiewicz. The application of this inequality jointly with the so-called Liapunov-Schmidt reduction requires a rigorous exposition of Semi-Fredholm operator theory and the theory of real analytic maps on infinite dimensional Banach spaces, which cannot be found anywhere in a readily applicable form. The applications covered in this short text are the simplest, but more complicated cases are mentioned in the final chapter, together with references to the corresponding specialized papers.

In this edited volume leaders in the field of partial differential equations present recent work on topics in PDEs arising from geometry and physics. The papers originate from a 2015 research school organized by CIMPA and MIMS in Hammamet, Tunisia to celebrate the 60th birthday of the late Professor Abbas Bahri. The opening chapter commemorates his life and work. While the research presented in this book is cutting-edge, the treatment throughout is at a level accessible to graduate students. It includes short courses offering readers a unique opportunity to learn the state of the art in evolution equations and mathematical models in physics, which will serve as an introduction for students and a useful reference for established researchers. Finally, the volume includes many open problems to inspire the next generation.