Bücher der Reihe Progress in Nonlinear Differential Equations and Their Applications

Weak convergence is a basic tool of modern nonlinear analysis because it enjoys the same compactness properties that finite dimensional spaces do: basically, bounded sequences are weak relatively compact sets.

Herbert Amann's work is distinguished and marked by great lucidity and deep mathematical understanding. The present collection of 31 research papers, written by highly distinguished and accomplished mathematicians, reflect his interest and lasting influence in various fields of analysis such as degree and fixed point theory, nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems, abstract evolutions equations, quasi-linear parabolic systems, fluid dynamics, Fourier analysis, and the theory of function spaces. Contributors are A. Ambrosetti, S. Angenent, W. Arendt, M. Badiale, T. Bartsch, Ph. Bénilan, Ph. Clément, E. Faöangová, M. Fila, D. de Figueiredo, G. Gripenberg, G. Da Prato, E.N. Dancer, D. Daners, E. DiBenedetto, D.J. Diller, J. Escher, G.P. Galdi, Y. Giga, T. Hagen, D.D. Hai, M. Hieber, H. Hofer, C. Imbusch, K. Ito, P. Krejcí, S.-O. Londen, A. Lunardi, T. Miyakawa, P. Quittner, J. Prüss, V.V. Pukhnachov, P.J. Rabier, P.H. Rabinowitz, M. Renardy, B. Scarpellini, B.J. Schmitt, K. Schmitt, G. Simonett, H. Sohr, V.A. Solonnikov, J. Sprekels, M. Struwe, H. Triebel, W. von Wahl, M. Wiegner, K. Wysocki, E. Zehnder and S. Zheng.

This self-contained research monograph focuses on semilinear Dirichlet problems and similar equations involving the p-Laplacian. The author explains new techniques in detail, and derives several numerical methods approximating the concentration point and the free boundary. The corresponding plots are highlights of this book.

Semilinear elliptic equations play an important role in many areas of mathematics and its applications to other sciences. This book presents a wealth of modern methods to solve such equations. Readers of this exposition will be advanced students and researchers in mathematics, physics and other.

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.

This book contains both a synthesis and mathematical analysis of a wide set of algorithms and theories whose aim is the automatic segmen tation of digital images as well as the understanding of visual perception.

Michele Matzeu Alfonso Vignoli Editors Topological Nonlinear Analysis II Degree, Singularity and Variations Classical Solutions for a Perturbed N-Body System Gianfausto Dell 'A ntonio O.

Harmonic maps are solutions to a natural geometrical variational prob lem. Harmonic maps are also closely related to holomorphic maps in several complex variables, to the theory of stochastic processes, to nonlinear field theory in theoretical physics, and to the theory of liquid crystals in materials science.

Symmetries appear in a quite natural way in many problems in physics and in differential or symplectic geometry, such as closed orbits for autonomous Hamiltonian systems, configurations of symmetric elastic plates under pressure, Hopf Bifurcation, Taylor vortices, convective motions of fluids, oscillations of chemical reactions, etc .

In time, it turned out that the majority of interesting generalizations of symmetrical spaces are D'Atri spaces: natu ral reductive homogeneous spaces, Riemann manifolds whose geodesics are orbits of one-parameter subgroups, etc.

This work has implications for many physical problems involving optimal design, composite materials, and coherent phase transitions. Still other work was published in standard books or journals, but written in Russian or French.

Aimed at mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and grad students, this monograph will be useful for the nonlinear analysis of problems arising in geometry or mathematical physics. The material presented covers recent and original results by the authors, and serves as an excellent classroom text or a valuable self-study resource.

The articles in this volume reflect a subsequent development after a scientific meeting entitled Carleman Estimates and Control Theory, held in Cartona in September 1999. The 14 research-level articles, written by experts, focus on new results on Carleman estimates and their applications to uniqueness and controlla­ bility of partial differential equations and systems. The main topics are unique continuation for elliptic PDEs and systems, con­ trol theory and inverse problems. New results on strong uniqueness for second or higher order operators are explored in detail in several papers. In the area of control theory. the reader will find applications of Carleman estimates to stabiliza­ tion, observability and exact control for the wave and the SchrOdinger equations. A final paper presents a challenging list of open problems on the topic of control­ lability of linear and sernilinear heat equations. The papers contain exhaustive and essentially self-contained proofs directly ac­ cessible to mathematicians, physicists, and graduate students with an elementary background in PDEs. Contributors are L. Aloui, M. Bellassoued, N. Burq, F. Colombini, B. Dehman, C. Grammatico, M. Khenissi, H. Koch, P. Le Borgne, N. Lerner, T. Nishitani. T. Okaji, K.D. Phung, R. Regbaoui, X. Saint Raymond, D. Tataru, and E. Zuazua.

In the field known as "the mathematical theory of shock waves," very exciting and unexpected developments have occurred in the last few years. The stability theory of "viscous" shock waves has received a new, geometric perspective due to the work of Kevin Zumbrun and collaborators, which offers a spectral approach to systems.

In the study of these phenomena an important role is played by well-chosen model equations, which are often simpler than the full equations describing the physical or biological system, but still capture its essential features.

The growing interest in these problems is reflected by the series of meetings held under the title "Free Boundary Problems: Theory and Applications" (Ox ford 1974, Pavia 1979, Durham 1978, Montecatini 1981, Maubuisson 1984, Irsee 1987, Montreal 1990, Toledo 1993, Zakopane 1995, Crete 1997, Chiba 1999).

This text features a careful treatment of flow lines and algebraic invariants in contact form geometry, a vast area of research connected to symplectic field theory, pseudo-holomorphic curves, and Gromov-Witten invariants (contact homology).

This monograph has grown out of research we started in 1987, although the foun dations were laid in the 1970's when both of us were working on our doctoral theses, trying to generalize the now classic paper of Oleinik, Kalashnikov and Chzhou on nonlinear degenerate diffusion.

Collects contributions by specialists in the domain of elliptic partial differential equations and geometric flows. This work is useful for students and researchers in the fields of elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations that arise from variational problems, as well as researchers in fields such as particle physics and optimization.

The problem has received considerable attention in the cases k = 2 and k = n, but much less when 3 k n-1. The core of the book discusses the case k = n, and then the case 1 k n-1 with special attention on the case k = 2, which is fundamental in symplectic geometry.

Aimed at mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and grad students, this monograph will be useful for the nonlinear analysis of problems arising in geometry or mathematical physics. The material presented covers recent and original results by the authors, and serves as an excellent classroom text or a valuable self-study resource.