Vassili N. Kolokoltsov - Böcker

A nonlinear Markov evolution is a dynamical system generated by a measure-valued ordinary differential equation with the specific feature of preserving positivity. This feature distinguishes it from general vector-valued differential equations and yields a natural link with probability, both in interpreting results and in the tools of analysis. This brilliant book, the first devoted to the area, develops this interplay between probability and analysis. After systematically presenting both analytic and probabilistic techniques, the author uses probability to obtain deeper insight into nonlinear dynamics, and analysis to tackle difficult problems in the description of random and chaotic behavior. The book addresses the most fundamental questions in the theory of nonlinear Markov processes: existence, uniqueness, constructions, approximation schemes, regularity, law of large numbers and probabilistic interpretations. Its careful exposition makes the book accessible to researchers and graduate students in stochastic and functional analysis with applications to mathematical physics and systems biology.

This monograph is about a branch of calculus the authors have called Idempotent Analysis, which deals with the semimodules of functions ranging in a semiring with idempotent addition. The theory is developed together with numerous applications to: discrete mathematics, turnpike theory, mathematical economics, games and controlled Markov processes, the theory of generalised solutions of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman differential equation, the theory of continuously observed and controlled quantum systems and the construction of WKB-like asymptotics of the heat equation and the Schrodinger equation.

There has been an increase in attention toward systems involving large numbers of small players, giving rise to the theory of mean field games, mean field type control and nonlinear Markov games.

There has been an increase in attention toward systems involving large numbers of small players, giving rise to the theory of mean field games, mean field type control and nonlinear Markov games.

Markov processes represent a universal model for a large variety of real life random evolutions. The wide flow of new ideas, tools, methods and applications constantly pours into the ever-growing stream of research on Markov processes that rapidly spreads over new fields of natural and social sciences, creating new streamlined logical paths to its turbulent boundary. Even if a given process is not Markov, it can be often inserted into a larger Markov one (Markovianization procedure) by including the key historic parameters into the state space.This monograph gives a concise, but systematic and self-contained, exposition of the essentials of Markov processes, together with recent achievements, working from the "physical picture" - a formal pre-generator, and stressing the interplay between probabilistic (stochastic differential equations) and analytic (semigroups) tools.The book will be useful to students and researchers. Part I can be used for a one-semester course on Brownian motion, Lévy and Markov processes, or on probabilistic methods for PDE. Part II mainly contains the author's research on Markov processes.From the contents: Tools from Probability and AnalysisBrownian motionMarkov processes and martingalesSDE, ψDE and martingale problemsProcesses in Euclidean spacesProcesses in domains with a boundaryHeat kernels for stable-like processesContinuous-time random walks and fractional dynamicsComplex chains and Feynman integral

The monograph is devoted mainly to the analytical study of the differential, pseudo-differential and stochastic evolution equations describing the transition probabilities of various Markov processes. These include (i) diffusions (in particular,degenerate diffusions), (ii) more general jump-diffusions, especially stable jump-diffusions driven by stable Lévy processes, (iii) complex stochastic Schrödinger equations which correspond to models of quantum open systems. The main results of the book concern the existence, two-sided estimates, path integral representation, and small time and semiclassical asymptotics for the Green functions (or fundamental solutions) of these equations, which represent the transition probability densities of the corresponding random process. The boundary value problem for Hamiltonian systems and some spectral asymptotics ar also discussed. Readers should have an elementary knowledge of probability, complex and functional analysis, and calculus.