Functional Spaces For The Theory Of Elliptic Partial Differential Equations

Functional Spaces for the Theory of Elliptic Partial Differential Equations

The theory of elliptic boundary problems is fundamental in analysis and the role of spaces of weakly differentiable functions (also called Sobolev spaces) is essential in this theory as a tool for analysing the regularity of the solutions. This book offers on the one hand a complete theory of Sobolev spaces, which are of fundamental importance for elliptic linear and non-linear differential equations, and explains on the other hand how the abstract methods of convex analysis can be combined with this theory to produce existence results for the solutions of non-linear elliptic boundary problems. The book also considers other kinds of functional spaces which are useful for treating variational problems such as the minimal surface problem. The main purpose of the book is to provide a tool for graduate and postgraduate students interested in partial differential equations, as well as a useful reference for researchers active in the field. Prerequisites include a knowledge of classical analysis, differential calculus, Banach and Hilbert spaces, integration and the related standard functional spaces, as well as the Fourier transformation on the Schwartz space. There are complete and detailed proofs of almost all the results announced and, in some cases, more than one proof is provided in order to highlight different features of the result. Each chapter concludes with a range of exercises of varying levels of difficulty, with hints to solutions provided for many of them.

Functional Spaces for the Theory of Elliptic Partial Differential Equations

Sobolev Spaces

Sobolev spaces play an outstanding role in modern analysis, in particular, in the theory of partial differential equations and its applications in mathematical physics. They form an indispensable tool in approximation theory, spectral theory, differential geometry etc. The theory of these spaces is of interest in itself being a beautiful domain of mathematics. The present volume includes basics on Sobolev spaces, approximation and extension theorems, embedding and compactness theorems, their relations with isoperimetric and isocapacitary inequalities, capacities with applications to spectral theory of elliptic differential operators as well as pointwise inequalities for derivatives. The selection of topics is mainly influenced by the author’s involvement in their study, a considerable part of the text is a report on his work in the field. Part of this volume first appeared in German as three booklets of Teubner-Texte zur Mathematik (1979, 1980). In the Springer volume “Sobolev Spaces”, published in English in 1985, the material was expanded and revised. The present 2nd edition is enhanced by many recent results and it includes new applications to linear and nonlinear partial differential equations. New historical comments, five new chapters and a significantly augmented list of references aim to create a broader and modern view of the area.