Bjorn Gustafsson – författare

This book studies solutions of the Polubarinova–Galin and Löwner–Kufarev equations, which describe the evolution of a viscous fluid (Hele-Shaw) blob, after the time when these solutions have lost their physical meaning due to loss of univalence of the mapping function involved. When the mapping function is no longer locally univalent interesting phase transitions take place, leading to structural changes in the data of the solution, for example new zeros and poles in the case of rational maps.

 This topic intersects with several areas, including mathematical physics, potential theory and complex analysis. The text will be valuable to researchers and doctoral students interested in fluid dynamics, integrable systems, and conformal field theory.

This monograph covers a multitude of concepts, results, and research topics originating from a classical moving-boundary problem in two dimensions (idealized Hele-Shaw flows, or classical Laplacian growth), which has strong connections to many exciting modern developments in mathematics and theoretical physics. Of particular interest are the relations between Laplacian growth and the infinite-size limit of ensembles of random matrices with complex eigenvalues; integrable hierarchies of differential equations and their spectral curves; classical and stochastic Löwner evolution and critical phenomena in two-dimensional statistical models; weak solutions of hyperbolic partial differential equations of singular-perturbation type; and resolution of singularities for compact Riemann surfaces with anti-holomorphic involution. The book also provides an abundance of exact classical solutions, many explicit examples of dynamics by conformal mapping as well as a solid foundation of potential theory. An extensive bibliography covering over twelve decades of results and an introduction rich in historical and biographical details complement the eight main chapters of this monograph.

 Given its systematic and consistent notation and background results, this book provides a self-contained resource. It is accessible to a wide readership, from beginner graduate students to researchers from various fields in natural sciences and mathematics.

This book exploits the classification of a class of linear bounded operators with rank-one self-commutators in terms of their spectral parameter, known as the principal function. The resulting dictionary between two dimensional planar shapes with a degree of shade and Hilbert space operators turns out to be illuminating and beneficial for both sides. An exponential transform, essentially a Riesz potential at critical exponent, is at the heart of this novel framework; its best rational approximants unveil a new class of complex orthogonal polynomials whose asymptotic distribution of zeros is thoroughly studied in the text. Connections with areas of potential theory, approximation theory in the complex domain and fluid mechanics are established.

The text is addressed, with specific aims, at experts and beginners in a wide range of areas of current interest: potential theory, numerical linear algebra, operator theory, inverse problems, image and signal processing, approximationtheory, mathematical physics.

Quadrature domains were singled out about 30 years ago by D. Aharonov and H.S. Shapiro in connection with an extremal problem in function theory. Since then, a series of coincidental discoveries put this class of planar domains at the center of crossroads of several quite independent mathematical theories, e.g., potential theory, Riemann surfaces, inverse problems, holomorphic partial differential equations, fluid mechanics, operator theory. The volume is devoted to recent advances in the theory of quadrature domains, illustrating well the multi-facet aspects of their nature. The book contains a large collection of open problems pertaining to the general theme of quadrature domains.