This book is based on the method of operator identities and related theory of S-nodes, both developed by Lev Sakhnovich. The notion of the transfer matrix function generated by the S-node plays an essential role. The authors present fundamental solutions of various important systems of differential equations using the transfer matrix function, that is, either directly in the form of the transfer matrix function or via the representation in this form of the corresponding Darboux matrix, when Bäcklund–Darboux transformations and explicit solutions are considered. The transfer matrix function representation of the fundamental solution yields solution of an inverse problem, namely, the problem to recover system from its Weyl function. Weyl theories of selfadjoint and skew-selfadjoint Dirac systems, related canonical systems, discrete Dirac systems, system auxiliary to the N-wave equation and a system rationally depending on the spectral parameter are obtained in this way. The results on direct and inverse problems are applied in turn to the study of the initial-boundary value problems for integrable (nonlinear) wave equations via inverse spectral transformation method. Evolution of the Weyl function and solution of the initial-boundary value problem in a semi-strip are derived for many important nonlinear equations. Some uniqueness and global existence results are also proved in detail using evolution formulas. The reading of the book requires only some basic knowledge of linear algebra, calculus and operator theory from the standard university courses.

This book will be a valuable addition to the growing literature in the area and essential reading for all researchers in the field of soliton theory.

Annotation Ito (North Carolina State U.) and Kappel (U. of Graz, Austria) offer a unified presentation of the general approach for well-posedness results using abstract evolution equations, drawing from and modifying the work of K. and Y. Kobayashi and S. Oharu. They also explore abstract approximation results for evolution equations. Their work is not a textbook, but they explain how instructors can use various sections, or combinations of them, as a foundation for a range of courses. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Many physical phenomena are described by nonlinear evolution equation. Those that are integrable provide various mathematical methods, presented by experts in this tutorial book, to find special analytic solutions to both integrable and partially integrable equations. The direct method to build solutions includes the analysis of singularities à la Painlevé, Lie symmetries leaving the equation invariant, extension of the Hirota method, construction of the nonlinear superposition formula. The main inverse method described here relies on the bi-hamiltonian structure of integrable equations. The book also presents some extension to equations with discrete independent and dependent variables. The different chapters face from different points of view the theory of exact solutions and of the complete integrability of nonlinear evolution equations. Several examples and applications to concrete problems allow the reader to experience directly the power of the different machineries involved.

The book is devoted to the questions of the long-time behavior of solutions for evolution equations, connected with kinetic models in statistical physics. There is a wide variety of problems where such models are used to obtain reasonable physical as well as numerical results (Fluid Mechanics, Gas Dynamics, Plasma Physics, Nuclear Physics, Turbulence Theory etc.). The classical examples provide the nonlinear Boltzmann equation. Investigation of the long-time behavior of the solutions for the Boltzmann equation gives an approach to the nonlinear fluid dynamic equations. From the viewpoint of dynamical systems, the fluid dynamic equations arise in the theory as a tool to describe an attractor of the kinetic equation.

The idea of devoting a complete book to this topic was born at one of the Workshops on Nonlinear and Turbulent Processes in Physics taking place reg ularly in Kiev. With the exception of E. D. Siggia and N. Ercolani, all authors of this volume were participants at the third of these workshops. All of them were acquainted with each other and with each other's work. Yet it seemed to be somewhat of a discovery that all of them were and are trying to understand the same problem - the problem of integrability of dynamical systems, primarily Hamiltonian ones with an infinite number of degrees of freedom. No doubt that they (or to be more exact, we) were led to this by the logical process of scientific evolution which often leads to independent, almost simultaneous discoveries. Integrable, or, more accurately, exactly solvable equations are essential to theoretical and mathematical physics. One could say that they constitute the "mathematical nucleus" of theoretical physics whose goal is to describe real clas sical or quantum systems. For example, the kinetic gas theory may be considered to be a theory of a system which is trivially integrable: the system of classical noninteracting particles. One of the main tasks of quantum electrodynamics is the development of a theory of an integrable perturbed quantum system, namely, noninteracting electromagnetic and electron-positron fields.

Proceedings of the NSF Research Workshop on Contact Transformations, Held in Nashville, Tennessee, 1974

This book is an edited version of lectures given by the authors at a seminar at the Rand Afrikaans University. It gives a survey on the Painlevé test, Painlevé property and integrability. Both ordinary differential equations and partial differential equations are considered.

Here is a clearly written introduction to three central areas of inverse problems: inverse problems in electromagnetic scattering theory, inverse spectral theory, and inverse problems in quantum scattering theory. Inverse problems, one of the most attractive parts of applied mathematics, attempt to obtain information about structures by nondestructive measurements. Based on a series of lectures presented by three of the authors, all experts in the field, the book provides a quick and easy way for readers to become familiar with the area through a survey of recent developments in inverse spectral and inverse scattering problems.

While the prediction of observations is a forward problem, the use of actual observations to infer the properties of a model is an inverse problem. Inverse problems are difficult because they may not have a unique solution. The description of uncertainties plays a central role in the theory, which is based on probability theory. This book proposes a general approach that is valid for linear as well as for nonlinear problems. The philosophy is essentially probabilistic and allows the reader to understand the basic difficulties appearing in the resolution of inverse problems. The book attempts to explain how a method of acquisition of information can be applied to actual real-world problems, and many of the arguments are heuristic.