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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 . . . . . . . .

This book bridges a gap between a rigorous mathematical approach to variational problems and the practical use of algorithms of structural optimization in engineering applications. The foundations of structural optimization are presented in sufficiently simple form as to make them available for practical use.

This book reflects the strong connection between calculus of variations and the applications for which variational methods form the foundation.

The impulse which led to the writing of the present book has emerged from my many years of lecturing in special courses for selected students at the College of Civil Engineering of the Tech nical University in Prague, from experience gained as supervisor and consultant to graduate students-engineers in the field of applied mathematics, and - last but not least - from frequent consultations with technicians as well as with physicists who have asked for advice in overcoming difficulties encountered in solving theoretical problems. Even though a varied combination of problems of the most diverse nature was often in question, the problems discussed in this book stood forth as the most essential to this category of specialists. The many discussions I have had gave rise to considerations on writing a book which should fill the rather unfortunate gap in our literature. The book is designed, in the first place, for specialists in the fields of theoretical engineering and science. However, it was my aim that the book should be of interest to mathematicians as well. I have been well aware what an ungrateful task it may be to write a book of the present type, and what problems such an effort can bring: Technicians and physicists on the one side, and mathematicians on the other, are often of diametrically opposing opinions as far as books con ceived for both these categories are concerned.