In the first part of this EMS volume Yu.V. Egorov gives an account of microlocal analysis as a tool for investigating partial differential equations. This method has become increasingly important in the theory of Hamiltonian systems. Egorov discusses the evolution of singularities of a partial differential equation and covers topics like integral curves of Hamiltonian systems, pseudodifferential equations and canonical transformations, subelliptic operators and Poisson brackets. The second survey written by V.Ya. Ivrii treats linear hyperbolic equations and systems. The author states necessary and sufficient conditions for C?- and L2 -well-posedness and he studies the analogous problem in the context of Gevrey classes. He also gives the latest results in the theory of mixed problems for hyperbolic operators and a list of unsolved problems. Both parts cover recent research in an important field, which before was scattered in numerous journals. The book will hence be of immense value to graduate students and researchers in partial differential equations and theoretical physics.

Authored by well-known researchers, this book presents its material as accessible surveys, giving readers access to comprehensive coverage of results scattered throughout the literature. A unique source of information for graduate students and researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics, and engineers interested in the subject.

This book, the first printing of which was published as Volume 31 of the Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences, contains a survey of the modern theory of general linear partial differential equations and a detailed review of equations with constant coefficients. Readers will be interested in an introduction to microlocal analysis and its applications including singular integral operators, pseudodifferential operators, Fourier integral operators and wavefronts, a survey of the most important results about the mixed problem for hyperbolic equations, a review of asymptotic methods including short wave asymptotics, the Maslov canonical operator and spectral asymptotics, a detailed description of the applications of distribution theory to partial differential equations with constant coefficients including numerous interesting special topics.

From the reviews: ..".I think the volume is a great success ... a welcome addition to the literature ..." The Mathematical Intelligencer, 1993
..". According to the authors ... the work was written for the nonspecialists and physicists but in my opinion almost every specialist will find something new for herself/himself in the text. ..." Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, 1993
..". On the whole, a thorough overview on the classical aspects of the topic may be gained from that volume." Monatshefte fur Mathematik, 1993
..". It is comparable in scope with the great Courant-Hilbert Methods of Mathematical Physics, but it is much shorter, more up to date of course, and contains more elaborate analytical machinery...." The Mathematical Gazette, 1993"

This book, the first printing of which was published as Volume 31 of the Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences, contains a survey of the modern theory of general linear partial differential equations and a detailed review of equations with constant coefficients. Readers will be interested in an introduction to microlocal analysis and its applications including singular integral operators, pseudodifferential operators, Fourier integral operators and wavefronts, a survey of the most important results about the mixed problem for hyperbolic equations, a review of asymptotic methods including short wave asymptotics, the Maslov canonical operator and spectral asymptotics, a detailed description of the applications of distribution theory to partial differential equations with constant coefficients including numerous interesting special topics.

0. 1. The Scope of the Paper. This article is mainly devoted to the oper ators indicated in the title. More specifically, we consider elliptic differential and pseudodifferential operators with infinitely smooth symbols on infinitely smooth closed manifolds, i. e. compact manifolds without boundary. We also touch upon some variants of the theory of elliptic operators in Rn. A separate article (Agranovich 1993) will be devoted to elliptic boundary problems for elliptic partial differential equations and systems. We now list the main topics discussed in the article. First of all, we ex pound theorems on Fredholm property of elliptic operators, on smoothness of solutions of elliptic equations, and, in the case of ellipticity with a parame ter, on their unique solvability. A parametrix for an elliptic operator A (and A-). . J) is constructed by means of the calculus of pseudodifferential also for operators in Rn, which is first outlined in a simple case with uniform in x estimates of the symbols. As functional spaces we mainly use Sobolev - 2 spaces. We consider functions of elliptic operators and in more detail some simple functions and the properties of their kernels. This forms a foundation to discuss spectral properties of elliptic operators which we try to do in maxi mal generality, i. e., in general, without assuming selfadjointness. This requires presenting some notions and theorems of the theory of nonselfadjoint linear operators in abstract Hilbert space."

In the first part of this EMS volume Yu.V. Egorov gives an account of microlocal analysis as a tool for investigating partial differential equations. This method has become increasingly important in the theory of Hamiltonian systems. Egorov discusses the evolution of singularities of a partial differential equation and covers topics like integral curves of Hamiltonian systems, pseudodifferential equations and canonical transformations, subelliptic operators and Poisson brackets. The second survey written by V.Ya. Ivrii treats linear hyperbolic equations and systems. The author states necessary and sufficient conditions for C?- and L2 -well-posedness and he studies the analogous problem in the context of Gevrey classes. He also gives the latest results in the theory of mixed problems for hyperbolic operators and a list of unsolved problems. Both parts cover recent research in an important field, which before was scattered in numerous journals. The book will hence be of immense value to graduate students and researchers in partial differential equations and theoretical physics.

Two general questions regarding partial differential equations are explored in detail in this volume of the Encyclopaedia. The first is the Cauchy problem, and its attendant question of well-posedness (or correctness). The authors address this question in the context of PDEs with constant coefficients and more general convolution equations in the first two chapters. The third chapter extends a number of these results to equations with variable coefficients. The second topic is the qualitative theory of second order linear PDEs, in particular, elliptic and parabolic equations. Thus, the second part of the book is primarily a look at the behavior of solutions of these equations. There are versions of the maximum principle, the Phragmen-Lindel]f theorem and Harnack's inequality discussed for both elliptic and parabolic equations. The book is intended for readers who are already familiar with the basic material in the theory of partial differential equations.