Monographs in Mathematics – serie

The problem of finding minimal surfaces, i. e. of finding the surface of least area among those bounded by a given curve, was one of the first considered after the foundation of the calculus of variations, and is one which received a satis­ factory solution only in recent years. Called the problem of Plateau, after the blind physicist who did beautiful experiments with soap films and bubbles, it has resisted the efforts of many mathematicians for more than a century. It was only in the thirties that a solution was given to the problem of Plateau in 3-dimensional Euclidean space, with the papers of Douglas [DJ] and Rado [R T1, 2]. The methods of Douglas and Rado were developed and extended in 3-dimensions by several authors, but none of the results was shown to hold even for minimal hypersurfaces in higher dimension, let alone surfaces of higher dimension and codimension. It was not until thirty years later that the problem of Plateau was successfully attacked in its full generality, by several authors using measure-theoretic methods; in particular see De Giorgi [DG1, 2, 4, 5], Reifenberg [RE], Federer and Fleming [FF] and Almgren [AF1, 2]. Federer and Fleming defined a k-dimensional surface in IR" as a k-current, i. e. a continuous linear functional on k-forms. Their method is treated in full detail in the splendid book of Federer [FH 1].

The present. volume is the second volume of the book "Singularities of Differentiable Maps" by V.1. Arnold, A. N. Varchenko and S. M. Gusein-Zade. The first volume, subtitled "Classification of critical points, caustics and wave fronts", was published by Moscow, "Nauka", in 1982. It will be referred to in this text simply as "Volume 1". Whilst the first volume contained the zoology of differentiable maps, that is it was devoted to a description of what, where and how singularities could be encountered, this volume contains the elements of the anatomy and physiology of singularities of differentiable functions. This means that the questions considered in it are about the structure of singularities and how they function. Another distinctive feature of the present volume is that we take a hard look at questions for which it is important to work in the complex domain, where the first volume was devoted to themes for which, on the whole, it was not important which field (real or complex) we were considering. Such topics as, for example, decomposition of singularities, the connection between singularities and Lie algebras and the asymptotic behaviour of different integrals depending on parameters become clearer in the complex domain. The book consists of three parts. In the first part we consider the topological structure of isolated critical points of holomorphic functions. We describe the fundamental topological characteristics of such critical points: vanishing cycles, distinguished bases, intersection matrices, monodromy groups, the variation operator and their interconnections and method of calculation.

... there is nothing so enthralling, so grandiose, nothing that stuns or captivates the human soul quite so much as a first course in a science. After the first five or six lectures one already holds the brightest hopes, already sees oneself as a seeker after truth. I too have wholeheartedly pursued science passionately, as one would a beloved woman. I was a slave, and sought no other sun in my life. Day and night I crammed myself, bending my back, ruining myself over my books; I wept when I beheld others exploiting science fot personal gain. But I was not long enthralled. The truth is every science has a beginning, but never an end - they go on for ever like periodic fractions. Zoology, for example, has discovered thirty-five thousand forms of life ... A. P. Chekhov. "On the road" In this book a start is made to the "zoology" of the singularities of differentiable maps. This theory is a young branch of analysis which currently occupies a central place in mathematics; it is the crossroads of paths leading from very abstract corners of mathematics (such as algebraic and differential geometry and topology, Lie groups and algebras, complex manifolds, commutative algebra and the like) to the most applied areas (such as differential equations and dynamical systems, optimal control, the theory of bifurcations and catastrophes, short-wave and saddle-point asymptotics and geometrical and wave optics).

This book is based on a course given at the University of Chicago in 1980-81. As with the course, the main motivation of this work is to present an accessible treatment, assuming minimal background, of the profound work of G. A. Margulis concerning rigidity, arithmeticity, and structure of lattices in semi­ simple groups, and related work of the author on the actions of semisimple groups and their lattice subgroups. In doing so, we develop the necessary prerequisites from earlier work of Borel, Furstenberg, Kazhdan, Moore, and others. One of the difficulties involved in an exposition of this material is the continuous interplay between ideas from the theory of algebraic groups on the one hand and ergodic theory on the other. This, of course, is not so much a mathematical difficulty as a cultural one, as the number of persons comfortable in both areas has not traditionally been large. We hope this work will also serve as a contribution towards improving that situation. While there are anumber of satisfactory introductory expositions of the ergodic theory of integer or real line actions, there is no such exposition of the type of ergodic theoretic results with which we shall be dealing (concerning actions of more general groups), and hence we have assumed absolutely no knowledge of ergodic theory (not even the definition of "ergodic") on the part of the reader. All results are developed in full detail.

This volume discusses an in-depth theory of function spaces in an Euclidean setting, including several new features, not previously covered in the literature. In particular, it develops a unified theory of anisotropic Besov and Bessel potential spaces on Euclidean corners, with infinite-dimensional Banach spaces as targets.It especially highlights the most important subclasses of Besov spaces, namely Slobodeckii and Hölder spaces. In this case, no restrictions are imposed on the target spaces, except for reflexivity assumptions in duality results. In this general setting, the author proves sharp embedding, interpolation, and trace theorems, point-wise multiplier results, as well as Gagliardo-Nirenberg estimates and generalizations of Aubin-Lions compactness theorems.The results presented pave the way for new applications in situations where infinite-dimensional target spaces are relevant – in the realm of stochastic differential equations, for example.

This book is the continuation of the "Theory of Function Spaces" trilogy, published by the same author in this series and now part of classic literature in the area of function spaces. It can be regarded as a supplement to these volumes and as an accompanying book to the textbook by D.D. Haroske and the author "Distributions, Sobolev spaces, elliptic equations".

This book is the continuation of the "Theory of Function Spaces" trilogy, published by the same author in this series and now part of classic literature in the area of function spaces. It can be regarded as a supplement to these volumes and as an accompanying book to the textbook by D.D. Haroske and the author "Distributions, Sobolev spaces, elliptic equations".

This open access book presents a comprehensive survey of modern operator techniques for boundary value problems and spectral theory, employing abstract boundary mappings and Weyl functions. It includes self-contained treatments of the extension theory of symmetric operators and relations, spectral characterizations of selfadjoint operators in terms of the analytic properties of Weyl functions, form methods for semibounded operators, and functional analytic models for reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. Further, it illustrates these abstract methods for various applications, including Sturm-Liouville operators, canonical systems of differential equations, and multidimensional Schrödinger operators, where the abstract Weyl function appears as either the classical Titchmarsh-Weyl coefficient or the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. The book is a valuable reference text for researchers in the areas of differential equations, functional analysis, mathematical physics, and system theory.Moreover, thanks to its detailed exposition of the theory, it is also accessible and useful for advanced students and researchers in other branches of natural sciences and engineering.

This open access book presents a comprehensive survey of modern operator techniques for boundary value problems and spectral theory, employing abstract boundary mappings and Weyl functions. It includes self-contained treatments of the extension theory of symmetric operators and relations, spectral characterizations of selfadjoint operators in terms of the analytic properties of Weyl functions, form methods for semibounded operators, and functional analytic models for reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. Further, it illustrates these abstract methods for various applications, including Sturm-Liouville operators, canonical systems of differential equations, and multidimensional Schrödinger operators, where the abstract Weyl function appears as either the classical Titchmarsh-Weyl coefficient or the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. The book is a valuable reference text for researchers in the areas of differential equations, functional analysis, mathematical physics, and system theory.Moreover, thanks to its detailed exposition of the theory, it is also accessible and useful for advanced students and researchers in other branches of natural sciences and engineering.

This book discusses quantum theory as the theory of random (Brownian) motion of small particles (electrons etc.) under external forces. Implying that the Schrödinger equation is a complex-valued evolution equation and the Schrödinger function is a complex-valued evolution function, important applications are given.Readers will learn about new mathematical methods (theory of stochastic processes) in solving problems of quantum phenomena. Readers will also learn how to handle stochastic processes in analyzing physical phenomena.

This book discusses quantum theory as the theory of random (Brownian) motion of small particles (electrons etc.) under external forces. Implying that the Schrödinger equation is a complex-valued evolution equation and the Schrödinger function is a complex-valued evolution function, important applications are given.Readers will learn about new mathematical methods (theory of stochastic processes) in solving problems of quantum phenomena. Readers will also learn how to handle stochastic processes in analyzing physical phenomena.

This book is devoted to the least gradient problem and its variants. The least gradient problem concerns minimization of the total variation of a function with prescribed values on the boundary of a Lipschitz domain. It is the model problem for studying minimization problems involving functionals with linear growth. Functions which solve the least gradient problem for their own boundary data, which arise naturally in the study of minimal surfaces, are called functions of least gradient.The main part of the book is dedicated to presenting the recent advances in this theory. Among others are presented an Euler–Lagrange characterization of least gradient functions, an anisotropic counterpart of the least gradient problem motivated by an inverse problem in medical imaging, and state-of-the-art results concerning existence, regularity, and structure of solutions. Moreover, the authors present a surprising connection between the least gradient problem and the Monge–Kantorovich optimal transport problem and some of its consequences, and discuss formulations of the least gradient problem in the nonlocal and metric settings. Each chapter is followed by a discussion section concerning other research directions, generalizations of presented results, and presentation of some open problems.The book is intended as an introduction to the theory of least gradient functions and a reference tool for a general audience in analysis and PDEs. The readers are assumed to have a basic understanding of functional analysis and partial differential equations. Apart from this, the text is self-contained, and the book ends with five appendices on functions of bounded variation, geometric measure theory, convex analysis, optimal transport, and analysis in metric spaces.

This book is devoted to the least gradient problem and its variants. The least gradient problem concerns minimization of the total variation of a function with prescribed values on the boundary of a Lipschitz domain. It is the model problem for studying minimization problems involving functionals with linear growth. Functions which solve the least gradient problem for their own boundary data, which arise naturally in the study of minimal surfaces, are called functions of least gradient.The main part of the book is dedicated to presenting the recent advances in this theory. Among others are presented an Euler–Lagrange characterization of least gradient functions, an anisotropic counterpart of the least gradient problem motivated by an inverse problem in medical imaging, and state-of-the-art results concerning existence, regularity, and structure of solutions. Moreover, the authors present a surprising connection between the least gradient problem and the Monge–Kantorovich optimal transport problem and some of its consequences, and discuss formulations of the least gradient problem in the nonlocal and metric settings. Each chapter is followed by a discussion section concerning other research directions, generalizations of presented results, and presentation of some open problems.The book is intended as an introduction to the theory of least gradient functions and a reference tool for a general audience in analysis and PDEs. The readers are assumed to have a basic understanding of functional analysis and partial differential equations. Apart from this, the text is self-contained, and the book ends with five appendices on functions of bounded variation, geometric measure theory, convex analysis, optimal transport, and analysis in metric spaces.

This monograph presents a self-contained introduction to the analytic foundation of a level set approach for various surface evolution equations, including curvature flow equations. These equations are important in many applications, such as material sciences, image processing, and differential geometry. The goal is to introduce a generalized notion of solutions allowing singularities and to solve the initial-value problem globally-in-time in a generalized sense. For the Second Edition, new chapters have been added that describe a recent approach to surface evolution equations based on deterministic discrete two-person games. This game-theoretic interpretation is used to discuss the fattening phenomenon for the curvature flow equation and to provide an alternative proof for convexity preserving properties.This text is suitable for applied researchers who would like to know the detail of the theory, as well as its flavor; it is also suitable for graduate students interested in the field. Prerequisites include calculus, linear algebra, and some familiarity with semicontinuous functions. Familiarity with differential geometry and the theory of viscosity solutions is not required.

The theory of elliptic partial differential equations has undergone an important development over the last two centuries. Together with electrostatics, heat and mass diffusion, hydrodynamics and many other applications, it has become one of the most richly enhanced fields of mathematics. This monograph undertakes a systematic presentation of the theory of general elliptic operators. The author discusses a priori estimates, normal solvability, the Fredholm property, the index of an elliptic operator, operators with a parameter, and nonlinear Fredholm operators. Particular attention is paid to elliptic problems in unbounded domains which have not yet been sufficiently treated in the literature and which require some special approaches. The book also contains an analysis of non-Fredholm operators and discrete operators as well as extensive historical and bibliographical comments. The selected topics and the author's level of discourse will make this book a most useful resource for researchers and graduate students working in the broad field of partial differential equations and applications.

This monograph gives a systematic account of the theory of vector-valued Laplace transforms, ranging from representation theory to Tauberian theorems. In parallel, the theory of linear Cauchy problems and semigroups of operators is developed completely in the spirit of Laplace transforms. Existence and uniqueness, regularity, approximation and above all asymptotic behaviour of solutions are studied. Diverse applications to partial differential equations are given. The book contains an introduction to the Bochner integral and several appendices on background material. It is addressed to students and researchers interested in evolution equations, Laplace and Fourier transforms, and functional analysis. The second edition contains detailed notes on the developments in the last decade. They include, for instance, a new characterization of well-posedness of abstract wave equations in Hilbert space due to M. Crouzeix. Moreover new quantitative results on asymptotic behaviour of Laplace transforms have been added. The references are updated and some errors have been corrected.

The book presents a comprehensive exposition of extension results for maps between different geometric objects and of extension-trace results for smooth functions on subsets with no a priori differential structure (Whitney problems). The account covers development of the area from the initial classical works of the first half of the 20th century to the flourishing period of the last decade. Seemingly very specific these problems have been from the very beginning a powerful source of ideas, concepts and methods that essentially influenced and in some cases even transformed considerable areas of analysis. Aside from the material linked by the aforementioned problems the book also is unified by geometric analysis approach used in the proofs of basic results. This requires a variety of geometric tools from convex and combinatorial geometry to geometry of metric space theory to Riemannian and coarse geometry and more. The necessary facts are presented mostly with detailed proofs to make thebook accessible to a wide audience.

The book presents a comprehensive exposition of extension results for maps between different geometric objects and of extension-trace results for smooth functions on subsets with no a priori differential structure (Whitney problems). The account covers development of the area from the initial classical works of the first half of the 20th century to the flourishing period of the last decade. Seemingly very specific these problems have been from the very beginning a powerful source of ideas, concepts and methods that essentially influenced and in some cases even transformed considerable areas of analysis. Aside from the material linked by the aforementioned problems the book also is unified by geometric analysis approach used in the proofs of basic results. This requires a variety of geometric tools from convex and combinatorial geometry to geometry of metric space theory to Riemannian and coarse geometry and more. The necessary facts are presented mostly with detailed proofs to make thebook accessible to a wide audience.

The theory of elliptic partial differential equations has undergone an important development over the last two centuries. Together with electrostatics, heat and mass diffusion, hydrodynamics and many other applications, it has become one of the most richly enhanced fields of mathematics. This monograph undertakes a systematic presentation of the theory of general elliptic operators. The author discusses a priori estimates, normal solvability, the Fredholm property, the index of an elliptic operator, operators with a parameter, and nonlinear Fredholm operators. Particular attention is paid to elliptic problems in unbounded domains which have not yet been sufficiently treated in the literature and which require some special approaches. The book also contains an analysis of non-Fredholm operators and discrete operators as well as extensive historical and bibliographical comments. The selected topics and the author's level of discourse will make this book a most useful resource for researchers and graduate students working in the broad field of partial differential equations and applications.

This monograph gives a systematic account of the theory of vector-valued Laplace transforms, ranging from representation theory to Tauberian theorems. In parallel, the theory of linear Cauchy problems and semigroups of operators is developed completely in the spirit of Laplace transforms. Existence and uniqueness, regularity, approximation and above all asymptotic behaviour of solutions are studied. Diverse applications to partial differential equations are given. The book contains an introduction to the Bochner integral and several appendices on background material. It is addressed to students and researchers interested in evolution equations, Laplace and Fourier transforms, and functional analysis. The second edition contains detailed notes on the developments in the last decade. They include, for instance, a new characterization of well-posedness of abstract wave equations in Hilbert space due to M. Crouzeix. Moreover new quantitative results on asymptotic behaviour of Laplace transforms have been added. The references are updated and some errors have been corrected.

The book presents a comprehensive exposition of extension results for maps between different geometric objects and of extension-trace results for smooth functions on subsets with no a priori differential structure (Whitney problems). The account covers development of the area from the initial classical works of the first half of the 20th century to the flourishing period of the last decade. Seemingly very specific these problems have been from the very beginning a powerful source of ideas, concepts and methods that essentially influenced and in some cases even transformed considerable areas of analysis. Aside from the material linked by the aforementioned problems the book also is unified by geometric analysis approach used in the proofs of basic results. This requires a variety of geometric tools from convex and combinatorial geometry to geometry of metric space theory to Riemannian and coarse geometry and more. The necessary facts are presented mostly with detailed proofs to make thebook accessible to a wide audience.

The book presents a comprehensive exposition of extension results for maps between different geometric objects and of extension-trace results for smooth functions on subsets with no a priori differential structure (Whitney problems). The account covers development of the area from the initial classical works of the first half of the 20th century to the flourishing period of the last decade. Seemingly very specific these problems have been from the very beginning a powerful source of ideas, concepts and methods that essentially influenced and in some cases even transformed considerable areas of analysis. Aside from the material linked by the aforementioned problems the book also is unified by geometric analysis approach used in the proofs of basic results. This requires a variety of geometric tools from convex and combinatorial geometry to geometry of metric space theory to Riemannian and coarse geometry and more. The necessary facts are presented mostly with detailed proofs to make thebook accessible to a wide audience.

The Navier-Stokes equations - modeling the motion of viscous, incompressible Newtonian fluids - have been capturing the attention of an increasing number of mathematicians over the years and has now become one of the most intensely studied subjects in applied analysis. This project is dedicated to a complete and updated mathematical analysis of fundamental topics related to these equations. Every subject will be analyzed using different approaches. The main ideas behind them as well as their differences will also be emphasized and discussed. The book aims at being self-contained, however, it will also be supported by a vast bibliography for further reading.

If we had to formulate in one sentence what this book is about, it might be "How partial differential equations can help to understand heat explosion, tumor growth or evolution of biological species". These and many other applications are described by reaction-diffusion equations. The theory of reaction-diffusion equations appeared in the first half of the last century. In the present time, it is widely used in population dynamics, chemical physics, biomedical modelling. The purpose of this book is to present the mathematical theory of reaction-diffusion equations in the context of their numerous applications. We will go from the general mathematical theory to specific equations and then to their applications. Existence, stability and bifurcations of solutions will be studied for bounded domains and in the case of travelling waves. The classical theory of reaction-diffusion equations and new topics such as nonlocal equations and multi-scale models in biology will be considered.

It was already in 1964 [Fis66] when B. Fischer raised the question: Which finite groups can be generated by a conjugacy class D of involutions, the product of any two of which has order 1, 2 or 37 Such a class D he called a class of 3-tmnspositions of G. This question is quite natural, since the class of transpositions of a symmetric group possesses this property. Namely the order of the product (ij)(kl) is 1, 2 or 3 according as {i,j} n {k,l} consists of 2,0 or 1 element. In fact, if I{i,j} n {k,I}1 = 1 and j = k, then (ij)(kl) is the 3-cycle (ijl). After the preliminary papers [Fis66] and [Fis64] he succeeded in [Fis71J, [Fis69] to classify all finite "nearly" simple groups generated by such a class of 3-transpositions, thereby discovering three new finite simple groups called M(22), M(23) and M(24). But even more important than his classification theorem was the fact that he originated a new method in the study of finite groups, which is called "internal geometric analysis" by D. Gorenstein in his book: Finite Simple Groups, an Introduction to their Classification. In fact D. Gorenstein writes that this method can be regarded as second in importance for the classification of finite simple groups only to the local group-theoretic analysis created by J. Thompson.

This book deals with the symbiotic relationship between I Quarkonial decompositions of functions, on the one hand, and II Sharp inequalities and embeddings in function spaces, III Fractal elliptic operators, IV Regularity theory for some semi-linear equations, on the other hand. Accordingly, the book has four chapters. In Chapter I we present the Weier- strassian approach to the theory of function spaces, which can be roughly described as follows. Let 'IjJ be a non-negative Coo function in]R. n with compact support such that {'ljJe - m) : m E zn} is a resolution of unity in ]R. n. Let 'IjJ!3(x) = x!3'IjJ(x) where x E ]R. n and {3 E N~. One may ask under which circumstances functions and distributions f in ]R. n admit expansions 00 (0. 1) f(x) = L L L ). . ~m'IjJ!3(2jx - m), x E ]R. n, n !3ENg j=O mEZ with the coefficients ). . ~m E C. This resembles, at least formally, the Weier- strassian approach to holomorphic functions (in the complex plane), combined with the wavelet philosophy: translations x 1---4 x - m where m E zn and dyadic j dilations x 1---4 2 x where j E No in ]R. n. Such representations pave the way to constructive definitions offunction spaces.

"Stochastic Processes in Quantum Physics" addresses the question 'What is the mathematics needed for describing the movement of quantum particles', and shows that it is the theory of stochastic (in particular Markov) processes and that a relativistic quantum particle has pure-jump sample paths while sample paths of a non-relativistic quantum particle are continuous. Together with known techniques, some new stochastic methods are applied in solving the equation of motion and the equation of dynamics of relativistic quantum particles. The problem of the origin of universes is discussed as an application of the theory. The text is almost self-contained and requires only an elementary knowledge of probability theory at the graduate level, and some selected chapters can be used as (sub-)textbooks for advanced courses on stochastic processes, quantum theory and theoretical chemistry.

One hundred years ago (1904) Hermann Minkowski [58] posed a problem: to re­ 2 construct an even function I on the sphere 8 from knowledge of the integrals MI (C) = fc Ids over big circles C. Paul Funk found an explicit reconstruction formula for I from data of big circle integrals. Johann Radon studied a similar problem for the Eu­ clidean plane and space. The interest in reconstruction problems like Minkowski­ Funk's and Radon's has grown tremendously in the last four decades, stimulated by the spectrum of new modalities of image reconstruction. These are X-ray, MRI, gamma and positron radiography, ultrasound, seismic tomography, electron mi­ croscopy, synthetic radar imaging and others. The physical principles of these methods are very different, however their mathematical models and solution meth­ ods have very much in common. The umbrella name reconstructive integral geom­ etryl is used to specify the variety of these problems and methods. The objective of this book is to present in a uniform way the scope of well­ known and recent results and methods in the reconstructive integral geometry. We do not touch here the problems arising in adaptation of analytic methods to numerical reconstruction algorithms. We refer to the books [61], [62] which are focused on these problems. Various aspects of interplay of integral geometry and differential equations are discussed in Chapters 7 and 8. The results presented here are partially new.