This book explains many fundamental ideas on the theory of distributions. The theory of partial differential equations is one of the synthetic branches of analysis that combines ideas and methods from different fields of mathematics, ranging from functional analysis and harmonic analysis to differential geometry and topology. This presents specific difficulties to those studying this field. This book, which consists of 10 chapters, is suitable for upper undergraduate/graduate students and mathematicians seeking an accessible introduction to some aspects of the theory of distributions. It can also be used for one-semester course.

The second edition of a classic graduate text on the theory of distributions.

A self-contained mathematical introduction that concentrates on the essential results important to non-specialists.

This textbook is an application-oriented introduction to the theory of distributions, a powerful tool used in mathematical analysis. The treatment emphasizes applications that relate distributions to linear partial differential equations and Fourier analysis problems found in mechanics, optics, quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and signal analysis. The book is motivated by many exercises, hints, and solutions that guide the reader along a path requiring only a minimal mathematical background.

A textbook for a graduate course in the theory of distributions and related topics, for students of applied mathematics or theoretical physics. Introduces the theory, explicates mathematical structures and the Hilbert-space aspects, and presents applications to typical boundary problems. Annotation

This detailed introduction to distribution theory uses no measure theory, making it suitable for students in statistics and econometrics as well as for researchers who use statistical methods. Good backgrounds in calculus and linear algebra are important and a course in elementary mathematical analysis is useful, but not required. An appendix gives a detailed summary of the mathematical definitions and results that are used in the book. Topics covered range from the basic distribution and density functions, expectation, conditioning, characteristic functions, cumulants, convergence in distribution and the central limit theorem to more advanced concepts such as exchangeability, models with a group structure, asymptotic approximations to integrals, orthogonal polynomials and saddlepoint approximations. The emphasis is on topics useful in understanding statistical methodology; thus, parametric statistical models and the distribution theory associated with the normal distribution are covered comprehensively.

This important book provides a concise exposition of the basic ideas of the theory of distribution and Fourier transforms and its application to partial differential equations. The author clearly presents the ideas, precise statements of theorems, and explanations of ideas behind the proofs. Methods in which techniques are used in applications are illustrated, and many problems are included. The book also introduces several significant recent topics, including pseudodifferential operators, wave front sets, wavelets, and quasicrystals. Background mathematical prerequisites have been kept to a minimum, with only a knowledge of multidimensional calculus and basic complex variables needed to fully understand the concepts in the book.A Guide to Distribution Theory and Fourier Transforms can serve as a textbook for parts of a course on Applied Analysis or Methods of Mathematical Physics, and in fact it is used that way at Cornell.

This book gives an introduction to distribution theory, based on the work of Schwartz and of many other people. It is the first book to present distribution theory as a standard text. Each chapter has been enhanced with many exercises and examples.

I first learned the theory of distributions from Professor Ebbe Thue Poulsen in an undergraduate course at Aarhus University. Both his lectures and the textbook, Topological Vector Spaces, Distributions and Kernels by F. Treves, used in the course, opened my eyes to the beauty and abstract simplicity of the theory. However my incomplete study of many branches of classical analysis left me with the question: Why is the theory of distributions important? In my continued studies this question was gradually answered, but my growing interest in the history of mathematics caused me to alter my question to other questions such as: For what purpose, if any, was the theory of distributions originally created? Who invented distributions and when? I quickly found answers to the last two questions: distributions were invented by S. Sobolev and L. Schwartz around 1936 and 1950, respectively. Knowing this answer, however, only created a new question: Did Sobolev and Schwartz construct distributions from scratch or were there earlier trends and, if so, what were they? It is this question, concerning the pre history of the theory of distributions, which I attempt to answer in this book. Most of my research took place at the History of Science Department of Aarhus University. I wish to thank this department for its financial and intellectual support. I am especially grateful to Lektors Kirsti Andersen from the History of Science Department and Lars Mejlbo from the Mathematics Department, for their kindness, constructive criticism, and encouragement.

This book presents recent and very elementary developments of a theory of multiplication of distributions in the field of explicit and numerical solutions of systems of PDEs of physics (nonlinear elasticity, elastoplasticity, hydrodynamics, multifluid flows, acoustics). The prerequisites are kept to introductory calculus level so that the book remains accessible at the same time to pure mathematicians (as a smoothand somewhat heuristic introdcution to this theory) and to applied mathematicians, numerical engineers and theoretical physicists (as a tool to treat problems involving products of distributions).