At the summer school in Pisa in September 1996, Luigi Ambrosio and Norman Dancer each gave a course on the geometric problem of evolution of a surface by mean curvature, and degree theory with applications to PDEs respectively. This self-contained presentation accessible to PhD students bridged the gap between standard courses and advanced research on these topics. The resulting book is divided accordingly into 2 parts, and neatly illustrates the 2-way interaction of problems and methods. Each of the courses is augmented and complemented by additional short chapters by other authors describing current research problems and results.

Originally published in the Soviet Union, this text is meant for students of higher schools and deals with the most important sections of mathematics - differential equations and the calculus of variations. The first part describes the theory of differential equations and reviews the methods for integrating these equations and investigating their solutions. The second part gives an idea of the calculus of variations and surveys the methods for solving variational problems. The book contains a large number of examples and problems with solutions involving applications of mathematics to physics and mechanics. Apart from its main purpose the textbook is of interest to expert mathematicians. Lev Elsgolts (deceased) was a Doctor of Physico-Mathematical Sciences, Professor at the Patrice Lumumba University of Friendship of Peoples. His research work was dedicated to the calculus of variations and differential equations. He worked out the theory of differential equations with deviating arguments and supplied methods for their solution. Lev Elsgolts was the author of many printed works. Among others, he wrote the well-known books Qualitative Methods in Mathematical Analysis and Introduction to the Theory of Differential Equations with Deviating Arguments. In addition to his research work Lev Elsgolts taught at higher schools for over twenty years.

This volume provides the texts of lectures given by L. Ambrosio, L. Caffarelli, M. Crandall, L.C. Evans, N. Fusco at the Summer course held in Cetraro, Italy in 2005. These are introductory reports on current research by world leaders in the fields of calculus of variations and partial differential equations. Coverage includes transport equations for nonsmooth vector fields, viscosity methods for the infinite Laplacian, and geometrical aspects of symmetrization.

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.

Introduction to the Calculus of Variations and Control with Modern Applications provides the fundamental background required to develop rigorous necessary conditions that are the starting points for theoretical and numerical approaches to modern variational calculus and control problems. The book also presents some classical sufficient conditions a

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the classical and modern calculus of variations, serving as a useful reference to advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the field. Starting from ten motivational examples, the book begins with the most important aspects of the classical theory, including the Direct Method, the Euler-Lagrange equation, Lagrange multipliers, Noether’s Theorem and some regularity theory. Based on the efficient Young measure approach, the author then discusses the vectorial theory of integral functionals, including quasiconvexity, polyconvexity, and relaxation. In the second part, more recent material such as rigidity in differential inclusions, microstructure, convex integration, singularities in measures, functionals defined on functions of bounded variation (BV), and Γ-convergence for phase transitions and homogenization are explored. While predominantly designed as a textbook for lecture courses on the calculus of variations, this book can also serve as the basis for a reading seminar or as a companion for self-study. The reader is assumed to be familiar with basic vector analysis, functional analysis, Sobolev spaces, and measure theory, though most of the preliminaries are also recalled in the appendix.