Lectures On Geometric Variational Problems

In this volume are collected notes of lectures delivered at the First In ternational Research Institute of the Mathematical Society of Japan. This conference, held at Tohoku University in July 1993, was devoted to geometry and global analysis. Subsequent to the conference, in answer to popular de mand from the participants, it was decided to publish the notes of the survey lectures. Written by the lecturers themselves, all experts in their respective fields, these notes are here presented in a single volume. It is hoped that they will provide a vivid account of the current research, from the introduc tory level up to and including the most recent results, and will indicate the direction to be taken by future researeh. This compilation begins with Jean-Pierre Bourguignon's notes entitled "An Introduction to Geometric Variational Problems," illustrating the gen eral framework of the field with many examples and providing the reader with a broad view of the current research. Following this, Kenji Fukaya's notes on "Geometry of Gauge Fields" are concerned with gauge theory and its applications to low-dimensional topology, without delving too deeply into technical detail. Special emphasis is placed on explaining the ideas of infi nite dimensional geometry that, in the literature, are often hidden behind rigorous formulations or technical arguments.

The international summer school on Calculus of Variations and Geometric Evolution Problems was held at Cetraro, Italy, 1996. The contributions to this volume reflect quite closely the lectures given at Cetraro which have provided an image of a fairly broad field in analysis where in recent years we have seen many important contributions. Among the topics treated in the courses were variational methods for Ginzburg-Landau equations, variational models for microstructure and phase transitions, a variational treatment of the Plateau problem for surfaces of prescribed mean curvature in Riemannian manifolds - both from the classical point of view and in the setting of geometric measure theory.

A minimal length curve joining two points in a surface is called a geodesic. One may trace the origin of the problem of finding geodesics back to the birth of calculus. Many contemporary mathematical problems, as in the case of geodesics, may be formulated as variational problems in surfaces or in a more generalized form on manifolds. One may characterize geometric variational problems as a field of mathematics that studies global aspects of variational problems relevant in the geometry and topology of manifolds. For example, the problem of finding a surface of minimal area spanning a given frame of wire originally appeared as a mathematical model for soap films. It has also been actively investigated as a geometric variational problem. With recent developments in computer graphics, totally new aspects of the study on the subject have begun to emerge. This book is intended to be an introduction to some of the fundamental questions and results in geometric variational problems, studying variational problems on the length of curves and the energy of maps. The first two chapters treat variational problems of the length and energy of curves in Riemannian manifolds, with an in-depth discussion of the existence and properties of geodesics viewed as solutions to variational problems. In addition, a special emphasis is placed on the facts that concepts of connection and covariant differentiation are naturally induced from the formula for the first variation in this problem, and that the notion of curvature is obtained from the formula for the second variation. The last two chapters treat the variational problem on the energy of maps between two Riemannian manifolds and its solution, harmonic maps. The concept of a harmonic map includes geodesics and minimal submanifolds as examples. Its existence and properties have successfully been applied to various problems in geometry and topology. The author discusses in detail the existence theorem of Eells-Sampson, which is considered to be the most fundamental among existence theorems for harmonic maps. The proof uses the inverse function theorem for Banach spaces. It is presented to be as self-contained as possible for easy reading. Each chapter may be read independently, with minimal preparation for covariant differentiation and curvature on manifolds. The first two chapters provide readers with basic knowledge of Riemannian manifolds. Prerequisites for reading this book include elementary facts in the theory of manifolds and functional analysis, which are included in the form of appendices. Exercises are given at the end of each chapter. This is the English translation of a book originally published in Japanese. It is an outgrowth of lectures delivered at Tohoku University and at the Summer Graduate Program held at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota. It would make a suitable textbook for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. This item will also be of interest to those working in analysis.

The field of geometric variational problems is fast-moving and influential. These problems interact with many other areas of mathematics and have strong relevance to the study of integrable systems, mathematical physics and PDEs. The workshop 'Variational Problems in Differential Geometry' held in 2009 at the University of Leeds brought together internationally respected researchers from many different areas of the field. Topics discussed included recent developments in harmonic maps and morphisms, minimal and CMC surfaces, extremal Kahler metrics, the Yamabe functional, Hamiltonian variational problems and topics related to gauge theory and to the Ricci flow. These articles reflect the whole spectrum of the subject and cover not only current results, but also the varied methods and techniques used in attacking variational problems. With a mix of original and expository papers, this volume forms a valuable reference for more experienced researchers and an ideal introduction for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

This book illustrates two basic principles in the calculus of variations which are the question of existence of solutions and closely related the problem of regularity of minimizers. Chapter one studies variational problems for nonquadratic energy functionals defined on suitable classes of vectorvalued functions where also nonlinear constraints are incorporated. Problems of this type arise for mappings between Riemannian manifolds or in nonlinear elasticity. Using direct methods the existence of generalized minimizers is rather easy to establish and it is then shown that regularity holds up to a set of small measure. Chapter two contains a short introduction into Geometric Measure Theory which serves as a basis for developing an existence theory for (generalized) manifolds with prescribed mean curvature form and boundary in arbitrary dimensions and codimensions. One major aspect of the book is to concentrate on techniques and to present methods which turn out to be useful for applications in regularity theorems as well as for existence problems.

W.K. ALLARD: On the first variation of area and generalized mean curvature.- F.J. ALMGREN Jr.: Geometric measure theory and elliptic variational problems.- E. GIUSTI: Minimal surfaces with obstacles.- J. GUCKENHEIMER: Singularities in soap-bubble-like and soap-film-like surfaces.- D. KINDERLEHRER: The analyticity of the coincidence set in variational inequalities.- M. MIRANDA: Boundaries of Caciopoli sets in the calculus of variations.- L. PICCININI: De Giorgi’s measure and thin obstacles.

This monograph treats variational problems for mappings from a surface equipped with a conformal structure into Euclidean space or a Riemannian manifold. Presents a general theory of such variational problems, proving existence and regularity theorems with particular conceptual emphasis on the geometric aspects of the theory and thorough investigation of the connections with complex analysis. Among the topics covered are: Plateau's problem, the regularity theory of solutions, a variational approach for obtaining various conformal representation theorems, a general existence theorem for harmonic mappings, and a new approach to Teichmuller theory via harmonic maps.