This book delves into a rigorous mathematical exploration of the well-posedness and long-time behavior of weak solutions to nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations, along with their implications in the theory of probabilistically weak solutions to McKean-Vlasov stochastic differential equations and the corresponding nonlinear Markov processes. These are widely acknowledged as essential tools for describing the dynamics of complex systems in disordered media, as well as mean-field models. The resulting stochastic processes elucidate the microscopic dynamics underlying the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations, whereas the solutions of the latter describe the evolving macroscopic probability distributions.The intended audience for this book primarily comprises specialists in mathematical physics, probability theory and PDEs. It can also be utilized as a one-semester graduate course for mathematicians. Prerequisites for the readers include a solid foundation in functional analysis and probability theory.

This book provides an introduction to the theory of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) of evolutionary type. SPDEs are one of the main research directions in probability theory with several wide ranging applications. Many types of dynamics with stochastic influence in nature or man-made complex systems can be modelled by such equations. The theory of SPDEs is based both on the theory of deterministic partial differential equations, as well as on modern stochastic analysis. Whilst this volume mainly follows the ‘variational approach’, it also contains a short account on the ‘semigroup (or mild solution) approach’. In particular, the volume contains a complete presentation of the main existence and uniqueness results in the case of locally monotone coefficients. Various types of generalized coercivity conditions are shown to guarantee non-explosion, but also a systematic approach to treat SPDEs with explosion in finite time is developed. It is, so far, the only book where the latter and the ‘locally monotone case’ is presented in a detailed and complete way for SPDEs. The extension to this more general framework for SPDEs, for example, in comparison to the well-known case of globally monotone coefficients, substantially widens the applicability of the results.

Focusing on stochastic porous media equations, this book places an emphasis on existence theorems, asymptotic behavior and ergodic properties of the associated transition semigroup. Stochastic perturbations of the porous media equation have reviously been considered by physicists, but rigorous mathematical existence results have only recently been found.The porous media equation models a number of different physical phenomena, including the flow of an ideal gas and the diffusion of a compressible fluid through porous media, and also thermal propagation in plasma and plasma radiation. Another important application is to a model of the standard self-organized criticality process, called the "sand-pile model" or the "Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model".The book will be of interest to PhD students and researchers in mathematics, physics and biology.

The purpose of this book is to give a streamlined introduction to the theory of (not necessarily symmetric) Dirichlet forms on general state spaces. It includes both the analytic and the probabilistic part of the theory up to and including the construction of an associated Markov process. It is based on recent joint work of S. Albeverio and the two authors and on a one-year-course on Dirichlet forms taught by the second named author at the University of Bonn in 1990/9l. It addresses both researchers and graduate students who require a quick but complete introduction to the theory. Prerequisites are a basic course in probabil­ ity theory (including elementary martingale theory up to the optional sampling theorem) and a sound knowledge of measure theory (as, for example, to be found in Part I of H. Bauer [B 78]). Furthermore, an elementary course on lin­ ear operators on Banach and Hilbert spaces (but without spectral theory) and a course on Markov processes would be helpful though most of the material needed is included here.

These lectures concentrate on (nonlinear) stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) of evolutionary type. All kinds of dynamics with stochastic influence in nature or man-made complex systems can be modelled by such equations. To keep the technicalities minimal we confine ourselves to the case where the noise term is given by a stochastic integral w.r.t. a cylindrical Wiener process.But all results can be easily generalized to SPDE with more general noises such as, for instance, stochastic integral w.r.t. a continuous local martingale.There are basically three approaches to analyze SPDE: the "martingale measure approach", the "mild solution approach” and the "variational approach". The purpose of these notes is to give a concise and as self-contained as possible an introduction to the "variational approach”. A large part of necessary background material, such as definitions and results from the theory of Hilbert spaces, are included in appendices.

Of the three lecture courses making up the CIME summer school on Fluid Dynamics at Cetraro in 2005 reflected in this volume, the first, due to Sergio Albeverio describes deterministic and stochastic models of hydrodynamics.In the second course, Franco Flandoli starts from 3D Navier-Stokes equations and ends with turbulence. Finally, Yakov Sinai, in the 3rd course, describes some rigorous mathematical results for multidimensional Navier-Stokes systems and some recent results on the one-dimensional Burgers equation with random forcing.

This book delves into a rigorous mathematical exploration of the well-posedness and long-time behavior of weak solutions to nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations, along with their implications in the theory of probabilistically weak solutions to McKean-Vlasov stochastic differential equations and the corresponding nonlinear Markov processes. These are widely acknowledged as essential tools for describing the dynamics of complex systems in disordered media, as well as mean-field models. The resulting stochastic processes elucidate the microscopic dynamics underlying the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations, whereas the solutions of the latter describe the evolving macroscopic probability distributions.The intended audience for this book primarily comprises specialists in mathematical physics, probability theory and PDEs. It can also be utilized as a one-semester graduate course for mathematicians. Prerequisites for the readers include a solid foundation in functional analysis and probability theory.

This book provides an introduction to the theory of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) of evolutionary type. SPDEs are one of the main research directions in probability theory with several wide ranging applications. Many types of dynamics with stochastic influence in nature or man-made complex systems can be modelled by such equations. The theory of SPDEs is based both on the theory of deterministic partial differential equations, as well as on modern stochastic analysis. Whilst this volume mainly follows the ‘variational approach’, it also contains a short account on the ‘semigroup (or mild solution) approach’. In particular, the volume contains a complete presentation of the main existence and uniqueness results in the case of locally monotone coefficients. Various types of generalized coercivity conditions are shown to guarantee non-explosion, but also a systematic approach to treat SPDEs with explosion in finite time is developed. It is, so far, the only book where the latter and the ‘locally monotone case’ is presented in a detailed and complete way for SPDEs. The extension to this more general framework for SPDEs, for example, in comparison to the well-known case of globally monotone coefficients, substantially widens the applicability of the results.

Focusing on stochastic porous media equations, this book places an emphasis on existence theorems, asymptotic behavior and ergodic properties of the associated transition semigroup. Stochastic perturbations of the porous media equation have reviously been considered by physicists, but rigorous mathematical existence results have only recently been found.The porous media equation models a number of different physical phenomena, including the flow of an ideal gas and the diffusion of a compressible fluid through porous media, and also thermal propagation in plasma and plasma radiation. Another important application is to a model of the standard self-organized criticality process, called the "sand-pile model" or the "Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model".The book will be of interest to PhD students and researchers in mathematics, physics and biology.

The purpose of this book is to give a streamlined introduction to the theory of (not necessarily symmetric) Dirichlet forms on general state spaces. It includes both the analytic and the probabilistic part of the theory up to and including the construction of an associated Markov process. It is based on recent joint work of S. Albeverio and the two authors and on a one-year-course on Dirichlet forms taught by the second named author at the University of Bonn in 1990/9l. It addresses both researchers and graduate students who require a quick but complete introduction to the theory. Prerequisites are a basic course in probabil­ ity theory (including elementary martingale theory up to the optional sampling theorem) and a sound knowledge of measure theory (as, for example, to be found in Part I of H. Bauer [B 78]). Furthermore, an elementary course on lin­ ear operators on Banach and Hilbert spaces (but without spectral theory) and a course on Markov processes would be helpful though most of the material needed is included here.

These lectures concentrate on (nonlinear) stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) of evolutionary type. All kinds of dynamics with stochastic influence in nature or man-made complex systems can be modelled by such equations. To keep the technicalities minimal we confine ourselves to the case where the noise term is given by a stochastic integral w.r.t. a cylindrical Wiener process.But all results can be easily generalized to SPDE with more general noises such as, for instance, stochastic integral w.r.t. a continuous local martingale.There are basically three approaches to analyze SPDE: the "martingale measure approach", the "mild solution approach” and the "variational approach". The purpose of these notes is to give a concise and as self-contained as possible an introduction to the "variational approach”. A large part of necessary background material, such as definitions and results from the theory of Hilbert spaces, are included in appendices.

Of the three lecture courses making up the CIME summer school on Fluid Dynamics at Cetraro in 2005 reflected in this volume, the first, due to Sergio Albeverio describes deterministic and stochastic models of hydrodynamics.In the second course, Franco Flandoli starts from 3D Navier-Stokes equations and ends with turbulence. Finally, Yakov Sinai, in the 3rd course, describes some rigorous mathematical results for multidimensional Navier-Stokes systems and some recent results on the one-dimensional Burgers equation with random forcing.