Athanassios S. Fokas - Böcker

Complex variables provide powerful methods for attacking problems that can be very difficult to solve in any other way, and it is the aim of this book to provide a thorough grounding in these methods and their application. Part I of this text provides an introduction to the subject, including analytic functions, integration, series, and residue calculus and also includes transform methods, ODEs in the complex plane, and numerical methods. Part II contains conformal mappings, asymptotic expansions, and the study of Riemann-Hilbert problems. The authors provide an extensive array of applications, illustrative examples and homework exercises. This 2003 edition was improved throughout and is ideal for use in undergraduate and introductory graduate level courses in complex variables.

Presents a new approach to analyzing initial-boundary value problems for integrable partial differential equations (PDEs) in two dimensions, a method that the author first introduced in 1997 and which is based on ideas of the inverse scattering transform. This method is unique in also yielding novel integral representations for the explicit solution of linear boundary value problems, which include such classical problems as the heat equation on a finite interval and the Helmholtz equation in the interior of an equilateral triangle.The author’s thorough introduction allows the interested reader to quickly assimilate the essential results of the book, avoiding many computational details. Several new developments are addressed in the book, including a new transform method for linear evolution equations on the half-line and on the finite interval; analytical inversion of certain integrals such as the attenuated radon transform and the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for a moving boundary; analytical and numerical methods for elliptic PDEs in a convex polygon; and integrable nonlinear PDEs.An epilogue provides a list of problems on which the author’s new approach has been used, offers open problems, and gives a glimpse into how the method might be applied to problems in three dimensions.Several new developments are addressed in the book, including:A new transform method for linear evolution equations on the half-line and on the finite interval.Analytical inversion of certain integrals such as the attenuated Radon transform and the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for a moving boundary.Integral representations for linear boundary value problems.Analytical and numerical methods for elliptic PDEs in a convex polygon.Integrable nonlinear PDEs.

The study of complex variables is beautiful from a purely mathematical point of view, and very useful for solving a wide array of problems arising in applications. This introduction to complex variables, suitable as a text for a one-semester course, has been written for undergraduate students in applied mathematics, science, and engineering. Based on the authors' extensive teaching experience, it covers topics of keen interest to these students, including ordinary differential equations, as well as Fourier and Laplace transform methods for solving partial differential equations arising in physical applications. Many worked examples, applications, and exercises are included. With this foundation, students can progress beyond the standard course and explore a range of additional topics, including generalized Cauchy theorem, Painlevé equations, computational methods, and conformal mapping with circular arcs. Advanced topics are labeled with an asterisk and can be included in the syllabus or form the basis for challenging student projects.

The study of complex variables is beautiful from a purely mathematical point of view, and very useful for solving a wide array of problems arising in applications. This introduction to complex variables, suitable as a text for a one-semester course, has been written for undergraduate students in applied mathematics, science, and engineering. Based on the authors' extensive teaching experience, it covers topics of keen interest to these students, including ordinary differential equations, as well as Fourier and Laplace transform methods for solving partial differential equations arising in physical applications. Many worked examples, applications, and exercises are included. With this foundation, students can progress beyond the standard course and explore a range of additional topics, including generalized Cauchy theorem, Painlevé equations, computational methods, and conformal mapping with circular arcs. Advanced topics are labeled with an asterisk and can be included in the syllabus or form the basis for challenging student projects.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the French mathematician Paul Painleve and his students classified second order nonlinear ordinary differential equations with the property that the location of possible branch points and essential singularities of their solutions does not depend on initial conditions. It turned out that there are only six such equations (up to natural equivalence), which later became known as Painleve I-VI. Although these equations were initially obtained answering a strictly mathematical question, they appeared later in an astonishing (and growing) range of applications, including, e.g., statistical physics, fluid mechanics, random matrices, and orthogonal polynomials. Actually, it is now becoming clear that the Painleve transcendents (i.e., the solutions of the Painleve equations) play the same role in nonlinear mathematical physics that the classical special functions, such as Airy and Bessel functions, play in linear physics. The explicit formulas relating the asymptotic behaviour of the classical special functions at different critical points play a crucial role in the applications of these functions. It is shown in this book that even though the six Painleve equations are nonlinear, it is still possible, using a new technique called the Riemann-Hilbert formalism, to obtain analogous explicit formulas for the Painleve transcendents. This striking fact, apparently unknown to Painleve and his contemporaries, is the key ingredient for the remarkable applicability of these ``nonlinear special functions''. The book describes in detail the Riemann-Hilbert method and emphasizes its close connection to classical monodromy theory of linear equations as well as to modern theory of integrable systems. In addition, the book contains an ample collection of material concerning the asymptotics of the Painleve functions and their various applications, which makes it a good reference source for everyone working in the theory and applications of Painleve equations and related areas.