Variational Methods: Applications to Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations and Hamiltonian Systems

by Michael Struwe

Overview

Hilbert's talk at the second International Congress of 1900 in Paris marked the beginning of a new era in the calculus of variations. A development began which, within a few decades, brought tremendous success, highlighted by the 1929 theorem of Ljusternik and Schnirelman on the existence of three distinct prime closed geodesics on any compact surface of genus zero, and the 1930/31 solution of Plateau's problem by Douglas and Radó. The book gives a concise introduction to variational methods and presents an overview of areas of current research in the field.

The fourth edition gives a survey on new developments in the field. In particular it includes the proof for the convergence of the Yamabe flow and a detailed treatment of the phenomenon of blow-up. Also the recently discovered results for backward bubbling in the heat flow for harmonic maps or surfaces are discussed. Aside from these more significant additions, a number of smaller changes throughout the text have been made and the references have been updated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783642093296
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	12/08/2010
Series:	Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete. 3. Folge / A Series of Modern Surveys in Mathematics , #34
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of hardcover 4th ed. 2008
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Michael Struwe is full Professor of Mathematics at ETH Zurich.

Prof. Struwe was born on October 6, 1955 in Wuppertal, Germany. He studied mathematics at the University of Bonn. After receiving his doctorate in 1980, he was a member of the scientific staff in the special research sector 72 of the German research foundation and later an assistant at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Bonn. He spent extended research visits in Paris and at the ETH Zurich. In 1984 he was awarded the Felix Hausdorff Prize of the University of Bonn.

On April 1, 1986 Michael Struwe was appointed assistant professor, on October 1, 1990 associate professor and in 1993 he became full Professor of Mathematics at the ETH Zurich. From October, 2002 to September, 2004 he served as head of the ETH Mathematics Department. His research focuses on non-linear partial differential equations and the calculus of variations as well as their applications in mathematical physics and differential geometry.

In 2006 he received the Credit Suisse Award For Best Teaching.

He is editor of the series 'Lectures in Mathematics, ETH Zürich' and co-editor of the series 'Zurich Lectures in Advanced Mathematics'; moreover, he is co-editor of the journals 'Calculus of Variations', 'Duke Mathematical Journal', and 'International Mathematical Research Notices'.

Table of Contents

The Direct Methods in the Calculus of Variations.- Lower Semi-Continuity.- Constraints.- Compensated Compactness.- The Concentration-Compactness Principle.- Ekeland's Variational Principle.- Duality.- Minimization Problems Depending on Parameters.- Minimax Methods.- The Finite Dimensional Case.- The Palais-Smale Condition.- A General Deformation Lemma.- The Minimax Principle.- Index Theory.- The Mountain Pass Lemma and its Variants.- Perturbation Theory.- Linking.- Parameter Dependence.- Critical Points of Mountain Pass Type.- Non-Differentiable Functionals.- Ljusternik-Schnirelman Theory on Convex Sets.- Limit Cases of the Palais-Smale Condition.- Pohozaev's Non-Existence Result.- The Brezis-Nierenberg Result.- The Effect of Topology.- The Yamabe Problem.- The Dirichlet Problem for the Equation of Constant Mean Curvature.- Harmonic Maps of Riemannian Surfaces.- Appendix A.- Appendix B.- Appendix C.- References.- Index.

Editorial Reviews

A concise introduction to variational methods and an overview of current research in the field. Among the topics are the direct methods including lower semi-continuity results, the compensated compactness method, Ekeland's variational principle, and duality or minimax methods including the mountain pass theorems, index theory, perturbation theory--and limit cases. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

From the reviews of the fourth edition:

"The fourth edition of Michael Struwe’s book Variational Methods: Applications to Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations and Hamiltonian Systems was published in 2008, 18 years after the first edition. … The bibliography alone would make it a valuable reference as it contains nearly 500 references. … Struwe’s book is addressed to researchers in differential geometry and partial differential equations." (John D. Cook, MAA Online, January, 2009)

“This is the fourth edition of a standard reference work on direct methods in the calculus of variations. … The book contains a wealth of important results that would otherwise be hard to find in one single place.” (M. Kunzinger, Monatshefte für Mathematik, Vol. 160 (4), July, 2010)

From the Publisher