Variational Methods

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 Radò. The book gives a concise introduction to variational methods and presents an overview of areas of current research in this field. This new edition has been substantially enlarged, a new chapter on the Yamabe problem has been added and the references have been updated. All topics are illustrated by carefully chosen examples, representing the current state of the art in their field.

Hilberts 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 Plateaus problem by Douglas and Rad. This third edition gives a concise introduction to variational methods and presents an overview of areas of current research in the field, plus a survey on new developments.

This book is devoted to the study of variational methods in imaging. The presentation is mathematically rigorous and covers a detailed treatment of the approach from an inverse problems point of view. Many numerical examples accompany the theory throughout the text. It is geared towards graduate students and researchers in applied mathematics. Researchers in the area of imaging science will also find this book appealing. It can serve as a main text in courses in image processing or as a supplemental text for courses on regularization and inverse problems at the graduate level.

This, the fourth edition of Stuwe’s book on the calculus of variations, surveys new developments in this exciting field. It also gives a concise introduction to variational methods. In particular it includes the proof for the convergence of the Yamabe flow and a detailed treatment of the phenomenon of blow-up. Recently discovered results for backward bubbling in the heat flow for harmonic maps or surfaces are discussed. A number of changes have been made throughout the text.

This is a textbook written for use in a graduate-level course for students of mechanics and engineering science. It is designed to cover the essential features of modern variational methods and to demonstrate how a number of basic mathematical concepts can be used to produce a unified theory of variational mechanics. As prerequisite to using this text, we assume that the student is equipped with an introductory course in functional analysis at a level roughly equal to that covered, for example, in Kolmogorov and Fomin (Functional Analysis, Vol. I, Graylock, Rochester, 1957) and possibly a graduate-level course in continuum mechanics. Numerous references to supplementary material are listed throughout the book. We are indebted to Professor Jim Douglas of the University of Chicago, who read an earlier version of the manuscript and whose detailed suggestions were extremely helpful in preparing the final draft. He also gratefully acknowledge that much of our own research work on variational theory was supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He are indebted to Mr. Ming-Goei Sheu for help in proofreading. Finally, we wish to express thanks to Mrs. Marilyn Gude for her excellent and pains taking job of typing the manuscript. J. T. ODEN J. N. REDDY Table of Contents PREFACE 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Role of Variational Theory in Mechanics. 1 1.2 Some Historical Comments ......... . 2 1.3 Plan of Study ............... . 5 7 2. MATHEMATICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL VARIATIONAL THEORY 7 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . .

The recent success and popularity of the finite-element method, crucial to solving mathematical problems in many branches of engineering today, is based on the variational methods discussed in this textbook. The author, Toshio Mura, is a distinguished engineer and applied mathematician who brings to the work a highly pragmatic approach designed to facilitate teaching the subject, which is essential for all materials science and mechanical and civil engineering students. In addition to all basic topics, the authors cover state-of-the-art research findings, such as those involving composite materials.

Physics has long been regarded as a wellspring of mathematical problems. Mathematical Methods in Physics is a self-contained presentation, driven by historic motivations, excellent examples, detailed proofs, and a focus on those parts of mathematics that are needed in more ambitious courses on quantum mechanics and classical and quantum field theory. Aimed primarily at a broad community of graduate students in mathematics, mathematical physics, physics and engineering, as well as researchers in these disciplines.

Highly readable text elucidates applications of the chain rule of differentiation, integration by parts, parametric curves, line integrals, double integrals, and elementary differential equations. 1974 edition.