Partial Differential Equations

by Jürgen Jost

Overview

This textbook is intended for students who wish to obtain an introduction to the theory of partial differential equations (PDEs, for short), in particular, those of elliptic type. Thus, it does not offer a comprehensive overview of the whole field of PDEs, but tries to lead the reader to the most important methods and central results in the case of elliptic PDEs. The guiding qu- tion is how one can find a solution of such a PDE. Such a solution will, of course, depend on given constraints and, in turn, if the constraints are of the appropriate type, be uniquely determined by them. We shall pursue a number of strategies for finding a solution of a PDE; they can be informally characterized as follows: (0) Write down an explicit formula for the solution in terms of the given data (constraints). This may seem like the best and most natural approach, but this is possible only in rather particular and special cases. Also, such a formula may be rather complicated, so that it is not very helpful for detecting qualitative properties of a solution. Therefore, mathematical analysis has developed other, more powerful, approaches. (1) Solve a sequence of auxiliary problems that approximate the given one, and show that their solutions converge to a solution of that original pr- lem. Differential equations are posed in spaces of functions, and those spaces are of inflnite dimension.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441923806
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	11/25/2010
Series:	Graduate Texts in Mathematics , #214
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of hardcover 2nd ed. 2007
Pages:	356
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Jürgen Jost is currently a codirector of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences and an honorary professor of mathematics at the University of Leipzig.

Table of Contents

Preface to the First Edition.- Preface to the Second Edition.- Introduction.- The Laplace equation as the prototype of an elliptic partial differential equation of 2nd order.- The maximum principle.- Existence techniques I: methods based on the maximum principle.- Existence techniques II: Parabolic methods. The Heat equation.- Reaction Diffusion Equations and Systems.- The wave equation and its connections with the Laplace and heat equations
• The heat equation, semigroups, and Brownian motion
• The Dirichlet principle. Variational methods for the solution of PDEs (Existence techniques III)
• Sobolev spaces and L2 regularity theory
• Strong solutions
• The regularity theory of Schauder and the continuity method (Existence techniques IV)
• The Moser iteration method and the reqularity theorem of de Giorgi and Nash
• Appendix: Banach and Hilbert spaces. The Lp-spaces.- References.- Index of Notation.- Index.-

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews of the second edition:

"Because of the nice global presentation, I recommend this book to students and young researchers who need the now classical properties of these second-order partial differential equations. Teachers will also find in this textbook the basis of an introductory course on second-order partial differential equations."

- Alain Brillard, Mathematical Reviews

"Beautifully written and superbly well-organised, I strongly recommend this book to anyone seeking a stylish, balanced, up-to-date survey of this central area of mathematics."

- Nick Lord, The Mathematical Gazette

“It is an expanded translation by the author of the German original. … The range of methods is wide, covering integral kernels, maximum principles, variational principles, gradient descents, weak derivatives and Sobolev spaces. … the proof are clear and pleasant, provided the reader has a good command in integration theory. … This book is an interesting introduction to the multiple facets of partial differential equations –– especially to regularity theory –– for the reader who has already a good background in analysis.” (Jean Van Schaftingen, Bulletin of the Belgian Mathematical Society, 2007)

From the Publisher