Shair Ahmad - Böcker

In recent years, there has been a tremendous amount of research activity in the general area of population dynamics, particularly the Lotka-Volterra system, which has been a rich source of mathematical ideas from both theoretical and application points of view. In spite of the technological advances, many authors seem to be unaware of the bulk of the work that has been done in this area recently. This often leads to duplication of work and frustration to the authors as well as to the editors of various journals. This book is built out of lecture notes and consists of three chapters written by four mathematicians with overlapping expertise that cover a broad sector of the research in this area. Each chapter consists of carefully written introductory exposition, main breakthroughs, open questions and bibliographies.The chapters present recent developments on topics involving the dynamic behavior of solutions and topics such as stability theory, permanence, persistence, extinction, existence of positive solutions for the Lotka-Volterra and related systems. This fills a void in the literature, by making available a source book of relevant information on the theory, methods and applications of an important area of research.

The first part of this book is mainly intended as a textbook for students at the Sophomore-Junior level, majoring in mathematics, engineering, or the sciences in general. The book includes the basic topics in Ordinary Differential Equations, normally taught at the undergraduate level, such as linear and nonlinear equations and systems, Bessel functions, Laplace transform, stability, etc. It is written with ample flexibility to make it appropriate either as a course stressing application, or a course stressing rigor and analytical thinking. It also offers sufficient material for a one-semester graduate course, covering topics such as phase plane analysis, oscillation, Sturm-Liouville equations, Euler-Lagrange equations in Calculus of Variations, first and second order linear PDE in 2D. There are substantial lists of exercises at the ends of the chapters. In this edition complete solutions to all even number problems are given in the back of the book.The 2nd edition also includes some new problems and examples. An effort has been made to make the material more suitable and self-contained for undergraduate students with minimal knowledge of Calculus. For example, a detailed review of matrices and determinants has been added to the chapter on systems of equations. The second edition also contains corrections of some misprints and errors in the first edition.

The proposed book will introduce many physical applications of first-order ordinary differential equations, including biology, demography, economy, and finance. The theoretical framework is focused on the Cauchy problem and general solutions of homogeneous and nonhomogeneous second-order linear differential equations. The book also introduces second-order equations with applications to physics and mechanics and more advanced topics based on systems of first-order linear equations with applications to the spread of infections, cow rumen, prey, and predator modeling. The book will also contain topics on series solutions for first- and second-order linear equations, Laplace transform, and an introduction to stochastic differential equations and their applications in finance.