Semilinear elliptic equations are of fundamental importance for the study of geometry, physics, mechanics, engineering and life sciences. The variational approach to these equations has experienced spectacular success in recent years, reaching a high level of complexity and refinement, with a multitude of applications. Additionally, some of the simplest variational methods are evolving as classical tools in the field of nonlinear differential equations. This book is an introduction to variational methods and their applications to semilinear elliptic problems. Providing a comprehensive overview on the subject, this book will support both student and teacher engaged in a first course in nonlinear elliptic equations. The material is introduced gradually, and in some cases redundancy is added to stress the fundamental steps in theory-building. Topics include differential calculus for functionals, linear theory, and existence theorems by minimization techniques and min-max procedures. Requiring a basic knowledge of Analysis, Functional Analysis and the most common function spaces, such as Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces, this book will be of primary use to graduate students based in the field of nonlinear partial differential equations. It will also serve as valuable reading for final year undergraduates seeking to learn about basic working tools from variational methods and the management of certain types of nonlinear problems.

This authoritative monograph presents in detail classical and modern methods for the study of semilinear elliptic equations, that is, methods to study the qualitative properties of solutions using variational techniques, the maximum principle, blowup analysis, spectral theory, topological methods, etc. The book is self-contained and is addressed to experienced and beginning researchers alike.

A graduate text explaining how methods of nonlinear analysis can be used to tackle nonlinear differential equations. Suitable for mathematicians, physicists and engineers, topics covered range from elementary tools of bifurcation theory and analysis to critical point theory and elliptic partial differential equations. The book is amply illustrated with many exercises.

The text is intended for students who wish a concise and rapid introduction to some main topics in PDEs, necessary for understanding current research, especially in nonlinear PDEs. Organized on three parts, the book guides the reader from fundamental classical results, to some aspects of the modern theory and furthermore, to some techniques of nonlinear analysis. Compared to other introductory books in PDEs, this work clearly explains the transition from classical to generalized solutions and the natural way in which Sobolev spaces appear as completions of spaces of continuously differentiable functions with respect to energetic norms. Also, special attention is paid to the investigation of the solution operators associated to elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic non-homogeneous equations anticipating the operator approach of nonlinear boundary value problems. Thus the reader is made to understand the role of linear theory for the analysis of nonlinear problems.

Elliptic equation is a class of partial differential equations describing phenomena that do not change from moment to moment, as when a flow of heat or fluid takes place within a medium with no accumulations. The Laplace equation, uxx + uyy = 0, is the simplest such equation describing this condition in two dimensions. In addition to satisfying a differential equation within the region, the elliptic equation is also determined by its values (boundary values) along the boundary of the region, which represent the effect from outside the region. Semilinear elliptic equations play an important role in many areas of mathematics and its applications to other sciences. Semilinear elliptic equations are of fundamental importance for the study of geometry, physics, mechanics, engineering and life sciences. The variational approach to these equations has experienced spectacular success in recent years, reaching a high level of complexity and refinement, with a multitude of applications. Semilinear Elliptic Equations for Beginners is a comprehensive guide to variational methods and their applications to semilinear elliptic problems. This book deals with nonlinear boundary value problems for semilinear elliptic equations on unbounded domains. This book will be of valuable for professors, practitioners, and researchers in mathematics and mathematical physics.

This self-contained textbook provides the basic, abstract tools used in nonlinear analysis and their applications to semilinear elliptic boundary value problems and displays how various approaches can easily be applied to a range of model cases. Complete with a preliminary chapter, an appendix that includes further results on weak derivatives, and chapter-by-chapter exercises, this book is a practical text for an introductory course or seminar on nonlinear functional analysis.

The nonlinear Schrodinger equation has received a great deal of attention from mathematicians, particularly because of its applications to nonlinear optics. This book presents various mathematical aspects of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. It studies both problems of local nature and problems of global nature.

In recent years considerable interest has been focused on nonlinear diffu sion problems, the archetypical equation for these being Ut = D.u + f(u). Here D. denotes the n-dimensional Laplacian, the solution u = u(x, t) is defined over some space-time domain of the form n x [O,T], and f(u) is a given real function whose form is determined by various physical and mathematical applications. These applications have become more varied and widespread as problem after problem has been shown to lead to an equation of this type or to its time-independent counterpart, the elliptic equation of equilibrium D.u + f(u) = o. Particular cases arise, for example, in population genetics, the physics of nu clear stability, phase transitions between liquids and gases, flows in porous media, the Lend-Emden equation of astrophysics, various simplified com bustion models, and in determining metrics which realize given scalar or Gaussian curvatures. In the latter direction, for example, the problem of finding conformal metrics with prescribed curvature leads to a ground state problem involving critical exponents. Thus not only analysts, but geome ters as well, can find common ground in the present work. The corresponding mathematical problem is to determine how the struc ture of the nonlinear function f(u) influences the behavior of the solution.

In the last 40 years semi-linear elliptic equations became a central subject of study in the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations. On the one hand, the interest in this area is of a theoretical nature, due to its deep relations to other branches of mathematics, especially linear and nonlinear harmonic analysis, dynamical systems, differential geometry and probability. On the other hand, this study is of interest because of its applications. Equations of this type come up in various areas such as problems of physics and astrophysics, curvature problems in Riemannian geometry, logistic problems related for instance to population models and, most importantly, the study of branching processes and superdiffusions in the theory of probability. The aim of this book is to present a comprehensive study of boundary value problems for linear and semi-linear second order elliptic equations with measure data. We are particularly interested in semi-linear equations with absorption. The interactions between the diffusion operator and the absorption term give rise to a large class of nonlinear phenomena in the study of which singularities and boundary trace play a central role. This book is accessible to graduate students and researchers with a background in real analysis and partial differential equations.

This book provides an overview of different topics related to the theory of partial differential equations. Selected exercises are included at the end of each chapter to prepare readers for the “research project for beginners” proposed at the end of the book. It is a valuable resource for advanced graduates and undergraduate students who are interested in specializing in this area. The book is organized in five parts: In Part 1 the authors review the basics and the mathematical prerequisites, presenting two of the most fundamental results in the theory of partial differential equations: the Cauchy-Kovalevskaja theorem and Holmgren's uniqueness theorem in its classical and abstract form. It also introduces the method of characteristics in detail and applies this method to the study of Burger's equation. Part 2 focuses on qualitative properties of solutions to basic partial differential equations, explaining the usual properties of solutions to elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic equations for the archetypes Laplace equation, heat equation and wave equation as well as the different features of each theory. It also discusses the notion of energy of solutions, a highly effective tool for the treatment of non-stationary or evolution models and shows how to define energies for different models. Part 3 demonstrates how phase space analysis and interpolation techniques are used to prove decay estimates for solutions on and away from the conjugate line. It also examines how terms of lower order (mass or dissipation) or additional regularity of the data may influence expected results. Part 4 addresses semilinear models with power type non-linearity of source and absorbing type in order to determine critical exponents: two well-known critical exponents, the Fujita exponent and the Strauss exponent come into play. Depending on concrete models these critical exponents divide the range of admissible powers in classes which make it possible to prove quite different qualitative properties of solutions, for example, the stability of the zero solution or blow-up behavior of local (in time) solutions. The last part features selected research projects and general background material.