Infinite Electrical Networks

by Armen H. Zemanian

Overview

Over the past two decades a general mathematical theory of infinite electrical networks has been developed. This is the first book to present the salient features of this theory in a coherent exposition. Using the basic tools of functional analysis and graph theory, the author presents the fundamental developments of the past two decades and discusses applications to other areas of mathematics. The first half of the book presents existence and uniqueness theorems for both infinite-power and finite-power voltage-current regimes, and the second half discusses methods for solving problems in infinite cascades and grids. A notable feature is the recent invention of transfinite networks, roughly analogous to Cantor's extension of the natural numbers to the transfinite ordinals. The last chapter is a survey of applications to exterior problems of partial differential equations, random walks on infinite graphs, and networks of operators on Hilbert spaces. The jump in complexity from finite electrical networks to infinite ones is comparable to the jump in complexity from finite-dimensional to infinite-dimensional spaces. Many of the questions that are conventionally asked about finite networks are presently unanswerable for infinite networks, while questions that are meaningless for finite networks crop up for infinite ones and lead to surprising results, such as the occasional collapse of Kirchoff's laws in infinite regimes. Some central concepts have no counterpart in the finite case, as for example the extremities of an infinite network, the perceptibility of infinity, and the connections at infinity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521063395
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/29/2008
Series:	Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics , #101
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Infinite-power regimes; 3. Finite-power regimes: the linear case; 4. Finite-power regimes: the nonlinear case; 5. Transfinite electrical networks; 6. Cascades; 7. Grids; 8. Applications.

Editorial Reviews

"...The book would make a fine Graduate level text for Electrical Engineers; it would also be useful for students in applied mathematics as a guide to possible research topics." Andrew Booth, Physics in Canada

From the Publisher