Corneliu Constantinescu - Böcker

This book has evolved from the lecture course on Functional Analysis I had given several times at the ETH. The text has a strict logical order, in the style of "Definition - Theorem - Proof - Example - Exercises�. The proofs are rather thorough and there many examples.

The first part of the book(the first three chapters, resp. the first two volumes) is devoted to the theory of Banach spaces in the most general sense of the term. The purpose of the first chapter (resp. first volume) is to introduce those results on Banach spaces which are used later or which are closely connected with the book. It therefore only contains a small part of the theory, and several results are stated (and proved) in a diluted form. The second chapter (which together with Chapter 3 makes the second volume) deals with Banach algebras (and involutive Banach algebras), which constitute the main topic of the first part of the book. The third chapter deals with compact operators on Banach spaces and linear (ordinary and partial) differential equations - applications of the, theory of Banach algebras.

This text gives a general definition of the (abstract) integral, using the Daniell method. A consequence of this approach is the fact that integration theory on Hausdorff topological spaces appears simply to be a special case of abstract integration theory. The most important tool for the development of the abstract theory is the theory of vector lattices which is presented here in great detail. Its consequent application not only yields insight into integration theory, but also simplifies many proofs. For example, the space of real-valued measures on a d-ring turns out to be an order complete vector lattice, which permits a coherent development of the theory and the elegant derivation of many classical and new results. The exercises occupy an important part of the volume. In addition to their usual role, some of them treat separate topics related to vector lattices and integration theory. This work should be of interest to graduate-level students and researchers with a background in real analysis, whose work involves (abstract) measure and integration, vector lattices, real functions of a real variable, probability theory and integral transforms.

There has been a considerable revival of interest in potential theory during the last 20 years. This is made evident by the appearance of new mathematical disciplines in that period which now-a-days are considered as parts of potential theory. Examples of such disciplines are: the theory of Choquet capacities, of Dirichlet spaces, of martingales and Markov processes, of integral representation in convex compact sets as well as the theory of harmonic spaces. All these theories have roots in classical potential theory. The theory of harmonic spaces, sometimes also called axiomatic theory of harmonic functions, plays a particular role among the above mentioned theories. On the one hand, this theory has particularly close connections with classical potential theory. Its main notion is that of a harmonic function and its main aim is the generalization and unification of classical results and methods for application to an extended class of elliptic and parabolic second order partial differential equations. On the other hand, the theory of harmonic spaces is closely related to the theory of Markov processes. In fact, all important notions and results of the theory have a probabilistic interpretation.