This book presents numerical methods and computational aspects for linear integral equations. Such equations occur in various areas of applied mathematics, physics, and engineering. The material covered in this book, though not exhaustive, offers useful techniques for solving a variety of problems. Historical information cover ing the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is available in fragments in Kantorovich and Krylov (1958), Anselone (1964), Mikhlin (1967), Lonseth (1977), Atkinson (1976), Baker (1978), Kondo (1991), and Brunner (1997). Integral equations are encountered in a variety of applications in many fields including continuum mechanics, potential theory, geophysics, electricity and mag netism, kinetic theory of gases, hereditary phenomena in physics and biology, renewal theory, quantum mechanics, radiation, optimization, optimal control sys tems, communication theory, mathematical economics, population genetics, queue ing theory, and medicine. Most of the boundary value problems involving differ ential equations can be converted into problems in integral equations, but there are certain problems which can be formulated only in terms of integral equations. A computational approach to the solution of integral equations is, therefore, an essential branch of scientific inquiry.

This textbook provides a readable account of techniques for numerical solutions.

Linear and Nonlinear Integral Equations: Methods and Applications is a self-contained book divided into two parts. Part I offers a comprehensive and systematic treatment of linear integral equations of the first and second kinds. The text brings together newly developed methods to reinforce and complement the existing procedures for solving linear integral equations. The Volterra integral and integro-differential equations, the Fredholm integral and integro-differential equations, the Volterra-Fredholm integral equations, singular and weakly singular integral equations, and systems of these equations, are handled in this part by using many different computational schemes. Selected worked-through examples and exercises will guide readers through the text. Part II provides an extensive exposition on the nonlinear integral equations and their varied applications, presenting in an accessible manner a systematic treatment of ill-posed Fredholm problems, bifurcation points, and singular points. Selected applications are also investigated by using the powerful Padé approximants. This book is intended for scholars and researchers in the fields of physics, applied mathematics and engineering. It can also be used as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in applied mathematics, science and engineering, and related fields. Dr. Abdul-Majid Wazwaz is a Professor of Mathematics at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

This book contains plenary lectures given at the International Conference on Mathematical and Computational Modeling, Approximation and Simulation, dealing with three very different problems: reduction of Runge and Gibbs phenomena, difficulties arising when studying models that depend on the highly nonlinear behaviour of a system of PDEs, and data fitting with truncated hierarchical B-splines for the adaptive reconstruction of industrial models. The book includes nine contributions, mostly related to quasi-interpolation. This is a topic that continues to register a high level of interest, both for those working in the field of approximation theory and for those interested in its use in a practical context. Two chapters address the construction of quasi-interpolants, and three others focus on the use of quasi-interpolation in solving integral equations. The remaining four concern a problem related to the heat diffusion equation, new results on the notion of convexity in probabilistic metric spaces (which are applied to the study of the existence and uniqueness of the solution of a Volterra equation), the use of smoothing splines to address an economic problem and, finally, the analysis of poverty measures, which is a topic of increased interest to society. The book is addressed to researchers interested in Applied Mathematics, with particular reference to the aforementioned topics.

In 1979, I edited Volume 18 in this series: Solution Methods for Integral Equations: Theory and Applications. Since that time, there has been an explosive growth in all aspects of the numerical solution of integral equations. By my estimate over 2000 papers on this subject have been published in the last decade, and more than 60 books on theory and applications have appeared. In particular, as can be seen in many of the chapters in this book, integral equation techniques are playing an increas ingly important role in the solution of many scientific and engineering problems. For instance, the boundary element method discussed by Atkinson in Chapter 1 is becoming an equal partner with finite element and finite difference techniques for solving many types of partial differential equations. Obviously, in one volume it would be impossible to present a complete picture of what has taken place in this area during the past ten years. Consequently, we have chosen a number of subjects in which significant advances have been made that we feel have not been covered in depth in other books. For instance, ten years ago the theory of the numerical solution of Cauchy singular equations was in its infancy. Today, as shown by Golberg and Elliott in Chapters 5 and 6, the theory of polynomial approximations is essentially complete, although many details of practical implementation remain to be worked out.