Bücher von Prof. Dr. K.-H. Hoffmann

Whilst improperly posed problems appear in several branches of applied and pure mathematics, this conference concentrated mainly on the practical treatment of ill­ posedness. The participants came from 12 countries. The interchange of ideas reflected the spectrum of questions arising in connection with the subject of the conference, where currently progresses in research are made. This volume contains 17 papers presented at the con­ ference. Focal points in the programme were: Problems of regularisation, parameter identification, free boundary and inverse problems in differential equations and inte­ gral equations of the first kind. Problems, which appear in science, in technical fields and in medicine are dis­ cussed as well as general operator equations. In a jOint discussion, several open problems have been worked out which are collected at the end of the volume. The editor's thanks go to all contributors and parti­ cipants who made the conference a success; to the manage­ ment of the institute with its unique atmosphere; to the Birkhauser Verlag for the possibility to publish the vo­ lume in the well-known ISNM series; to Dr. P. Jochum (Mlin­ chen) for assistance in organization and to Mrs. Chr. Rogg (Augsburg) for her excellent typing of several manuscripts.

Progress in different fields of mechanics, such as filtra­ tion theory, elastic-plastic problems, crystallization pro­ cesses, internal and surface waves, etc., is governed to a great extent by the advances in the study of free boundary problems for nonlinear partial differential equations. Free boundary problems form a scientific area which attracts attention of many specialists in mathematics and mechanics. Increasing interest in the field has given rise to the "International Conferences on Free Boundary Problems and Their Applications" which have convened, since the 1980s, in such countries as England, the United states, Italy, France and Germany. This book comprises the papers presented at the Interna­ tional Conference "Free Boundary Problems in Continuum Mechanics", organized by the Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, Russian Academy of Sciences, July 15-19, 1991, Novosibirsk, Russia. The scientific committee consisted of: Co-chairmen: K.-H. Hoffmann, L.V. Ovsiannikov S. Antontsev (Russia) J. Ockendon (UK) M. Fremond (France) L. Ovsiannikov (Russia) A. Friedman (USA) S. Pokhozhaev (Russia) K.-H. Hoffmann (Germany) M. Primicerio (Italy) A. Khludnev (Russia) V. Pukhnachov (Russia) V. Monakhov (Russia) Yu. Shokin (Russia) V. Teshukov (Russia) Our thanks are due to the members of the Scientific Com­ mittee, all authors, and participants for contributing to the success of the Conference. We would like to express special appreciation to N. Makarenko, J. Mal'tseva and T. Savelieva, Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, for their help in preparing this book for publication.