Modern Methods In The Calculus Of Variations

This is the first of two books on methods and techniques in the calculus of variations. Contemporary arguments are used throughout the text to streamline and present in a unified way classical results, and to provide novel contributions at the forefront of the theory. This book addresses fundamental questions related to lower semicontinuity and relaxation of functionals within the unconstrained setting, mainly in L^p spaces. It prepares the ground for the second volume where the variational treatment of functionals involving fields and their derivatives will be undertaken within the framework of Sobolev spaces. This book is self-contained. All the statements are fully justified and proved, with the exception of basic results in measure theory, which may be found in any good textbook on the subject. It also contains several exercises. Therefore,it may be used both as a graduate textbook as well as a reference text for researchers in the field. Irene Fonseca is the Mellon College of Science Professor of Mathematics and is currently the Director of the Center for Nonlinear Analysis in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research interests lie in the areas of continuum mechanics, calculus of variations, geometric measure theory and partial differential equations. Giovanni Leoni is also a professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. He focuses his research on calculus of variations, partial differential equations and geometric measure theory with special emphasis on applications to problems in continuum mechanics and in materials science.

Fresh, lively text serves as a modern introduction to the subject, with applications to the mechanics of systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom. Ideal for math and physics students.

This book provides a comprehensive discussion on the existence and regularity of minima of regular integrals in the calculus of variations and of solutions to elliptic partial differential equations and systems of the second order. While direct methods for the existence of solutions are well known and have been widely used in the last century, the regularity of the minima was always obtained by means of the Euler equation as a part of the general theory of partial differential equations. In this book, using the notion of the quasi-minimum introduced by Giaquinta and the author, the direct methods are extended to the regularity of the minima of functionals in the calculus of variations, and of solutions to partial differential equations. This unified treatment offers a substantial economy in the assumptions, and permits a deeper understanding of the nature of the regularity and singularities of the solutions. The book is essentially self-contained, and requires only a general knowledge of the elements of Lebesgue integration theory.

Provides a thorough understanding of calculus of variations and prepares readers for the study of modern optimal control theory. Selected variational problems and over 400 exercises. Bibliography. 1969 edition.

This book by Robert Weinstock was written to fill the need for a basic introduction to the calculus of variations. Simply and easily written, with an emphasis on the applications of this calculus, it has long been a standard reference of physicists, engineers, and applied mathematicians. The author begins slowly, introducing the reader to the calculus of variations, and supplying lists of essential formulae and derivations. Later chapters cover isoperimetric problems, geometrical optics, Fermat's principle, dynamics of particles, the Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue-eigenfunction problem, the theory of elasticity, quantum mechanics, and electrostatics. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises which should prove very useful in determining whether the material in that chapter has been thoroughly grasped. The clarity of exposition makes this book easily accessible to anyone who has mastered first-year calculus with some exposure to ordinary differential equations. Physicists and engineers who find variational methods evasive at times will find this book particularly helpful. "I regard this as a very useful book which I shall refer to frequently in the future." J. L. Synge, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society.

This book is developed for the study of vectorial problems in the calculus of variations. The subject is a very active one and almost half of the book consists of new material. This is a new edition of the earlier book published in 1989 and it is suitable for graduate students. The book has been updated with some new material and examples added. Applications are included.

This clear and concise textbook provides a rigorous introduction to the calculus of variations, depending on functions of one variable and their first derivatives. It is based on a translation of a German edition of the book Variationsrechnung (Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, 2010), translated and updated by the author himself. Topics include: the Euler-Lagrange equation for one-dimensional variational problems, with and without constraints, as well as an introduction to the direct methods. The book targets students who have a solid background in calculus and linear algebra, not necessarily in functional analysis. Some advanced mathematical tools, possibly not familiar to the reader, are given along with proofs in the appendix. Numerous figures, advanced problems and proofs, examples, and exercises with solutions accompany the book, making it suitable for self-study. The book will be particularly useful for beginning graduate students from the physical, engineering, and mathematical sciences with a rigorous theoretical background.