This book aims to give a user friendly tutorial of an interdisciplinary research topic (fronts or interfaces in random media) to senior undergraduates and beginning grad uate students with basic knowledge of partial differential equations (PDE) and prob ability. The approach taken is semiformal, using elementary methods to introduce ideas and motivate results as much as possible, then outlining how to pursue rigor ous theorems, with details to be found in the references section. Since the topic concerns both differential equations and probability, and proba bility is traditionally a quite technical subject with a heavy measure theoretic com ponent, the book strives to develop a simplistic approach so that students can grasp the essentials of fronts and random media and their applications in a self contained tutorial. The book introduces three fundamental PDEs (the Burgers equation, Hamilton– Jacobi equations, and reaction–diffusion equations), analysis of their formulas and front solutions, and related stochastic processes. It builds up tools gradually, so that students are brought to the frontiers of research at a steady pace. A moderate number of exercises are provided to consolidate the concepts and ideas. The main methods are representation formulas of solutions, Laplace meth ods, homogenization, ergodic theory, central limit theorems, large deviation princi ples, variational principles, maximum principles, and Harnack inequalities, among others. These methods are normally covered in separate books on either differential equations or probability. It is my hope that this tutorial will help to illustrate how to combine these tools in solving concrete problems.

The author considers semilinear parabolic equations of the form ut=uxx+f(u),x∈R,t>0, where f a C1 function. Assuming that 0 and γ>0 are constant steady states, the author investigates the large-time behavior of the front-like solutions, that is, solutions u whose initial values u(x,0) are near γ for x≈−∞ and near 0 for x≈∞. If the steady states 0 and γ are both stable, the main theorem shows that at large times, the graph of u(⋅,t) is arbitrarily close to a propagating terrace (a system of stacked traveling fonts). The author proves this result without requiring monotonicity of u(⋅,0) or the nondegeneracy of zeros of f. The case when one or both of the steady states 0, γ is unstable is considered as well. As a corollary to the author's theorems, he shows that all front-like solutions are quasiconvergent: their ω-limit sets with respect to the locally uniform convergence consist of steady states. In the author's proofs he employs phase plane analysis, intersection comparison (or, zero number) arguments, and a geometric method involving the spatial trajectories {(u(x,t),ux(x,t)):x∈R}, t>0, of the solutions in question.

This book highlights new developments in the wide and growing field of partial differential equations (PDE)-constrained optimization. Optimization problems where the dynamics evolve according to a system of PDEs arise in science, engineering, and economic applications and they can take the form of inverse problems, optimal control problems or optimal design problems. This book covers new theoretical, computational as well as implementation aspects for PDE-constrained optimization problems under uncertainty, in shape optimization, and in feedback control, and it illustrates the new developments on representative problems from a variety of applications.

In the past decade, there has been a sudden and vigorous development in a number of research areas in mathematics and mathematical physics, such as theory of operator algebras, knot theory, theory of manifolds, infinite dimensional Lie algebras and quantum groups (as a new topics), etc. on the side of mathematics, quantum field theory and statistical mechanics on the side of mathematical physics. The new development is characterized by very strong relations and interactions between different research areas which were hitherto considered as remotely related. Focussing on these new developments in mathematical physics and theory of operator algebras, the International Oji Seminar on Quantum Analysis was held at the Kansai Seminar House, Kyoto, JAPAN during June 25-29, 1992 by a generous sponsorship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Fujihara Foundation of Science, as a workshop of relatively small number of (about 50) invited participants. This was followed by an open Symposium at RIMS, described below by its organizer, A. Kishimoto. The Oji Seminar began with two key-note addresses, one by V.F.R. Jones on Spin Models in Knot Theory and von Neumann Algebras and by A. Jaffe on Where Quantum Field Theory Has Led. Subsequently topics such as Subfactors and Sector Theory, Solvable Models of Statistical Mechanics, Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Groups, and Renormalization Group Ap proach, are discussed. Towards the end, a panel discussion on Where Should Quantum Analysis Go? was held.

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications NONLINEAR STOCHASTIC PDEs: HYDRODYNAMIC LIMIT AND BURGERS' TURBULENCE is based on the proceedings of the period of concentration on Stochas tic Methods for Nonlinear PDEs which was an integral part of the 1993- 94 IMA program on "Emerging Applications of Probability." We thank Tadahisa Funaki and Wojbor A. Woyczynski for organizing this meeting and for editing the proceedings. We also take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office, whose financial support made this workshop possible. A vner Friedman Willard Miller, Jr. xiii PREFACE A workshop on Nonlinear Stochastic Partial Differential Equations was held during the week of March 21 at the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications at the University of Minnesota. It was part of the Special Year on Emerging Applications of Probability program put together by an organizing committee chaired by J. Michael Steele. The selection of topics reflected personal interests of the organizers with two areas of emphasis: the hydrodynamic limit problems and Burgers' turbulence and related models. The talks and the papers appearing in this volume reflect a number of research directions that are currently pursued in these areas.

The content of this book is multidisciplinary by nature. It uses mathematical tools from the theories of probability and stochastic processes, partial differential equations, and asymptotic analysis, combined with the physics of wave propagation and modeling of time reversal experiments. It is addressed to a wide audience of graduate students and researchers interested in the intriguing phenomena related to waves propagating in random media. At the end of each chapter there is a section of notes where the authors give references and additional comments on the various results presented in the chapter.

This book is about the importance of random phenomena occurring in nature. Cases are selected in which randomness is most important or crucial, such as Brownian motion, certain reactions in Physical Chemistry and Biology, and intermittency in magnetic field generation by turbulent fluid motion, etc. Due to ?almighty chance? the structures can originate from chaos even in linear problems. This idea is complementary as well as competes with a basic concept of synergetics where structures appear mainly due to the pan-linear nature of phenomena. This book takes a new look at the problem of structure formation in random media, qualitative physical representation of modern conceptions, intermittency, fractals, percolation and many examples from different fields of science.