History Of Functional Analysis

History of Functional Analysis

History of Functional Analysis presents functional analysis as a rather complex blend of algebra and topology, with its evolution influenced by the development of these two branches of mathematics. The book adopts a narrower definition—one that is assumed to satisfy various algebraic and topological conditions. A moment of reflections shows that this already covers a large part of modern analysis, in particular, the theory of partial differential equations. This volume comprises nine chapters, the first of which focuses on linear differential equations and the Sturm-Liouville problem. The succeeding chapters go on to discuss the ""crypto-integral"" equations, including the Dirichlet principle and the Beer-Neumann method; the equation of vibrating membranes, including the contributions of Poincare and H.A. Schwarz's 1885 paper; and the idea of infinite dimension. Other chapters cover the crucial years and the definition of Hilbert space, including Fredholm's discovery and the contributions of Hilbert; duality and the definition of normed spaces, including the Hahn-Banach theorem and the method of the gliding hump and Baire category; spectral theory after 1900, including the theories and works of F. Riesz, Hilbert, von Neumann, Weyl, and Carleman; locally convex spaces and the theory of distributions; and applications of functional analysis to differential and partial differential equations. This book will be of interest to practitioners in the fields of mathematics and statistics.

Functional Analysis in Historical Perspective

History of Banach Spaces and Linear Operators

Written by a distinguished specialist in functional analysis, this book presents a comprehensive treatment of the history of Banach spaces and (abstract bounded) linear operators. Banach space theory is presented as a part of a broad mathematics context, using tools from such areas as set theory, topology, algebra, combinatorics, probability theory, logic, etc. Equal emphasis is given to both spaces and operators. The book may serve as a reference for researchers and as an introduction for graduate students who want to learn Banach space theory with some historical flavor.