Elliptic equations of critical Sobolev growth have been the target of investigation for decades because they have proved to be of great importance in analysis, geometry, and physics. The equations studied here are of the well-known Yamabe type. They involve Schrödinger operators on the left hand side and a critical nonlinearity on the right hand side. A significant development in the study of such equations occurred in the 1980s. It was discovered that the sequence splits into a solution of the limit equation--a finite sum of bubbles--and a rest that converges strongly to zero in the Sobolev space consisting of square integrable functions whose gradient is also square integrable. This splitting is known as the integral theory for blow-up. In this book, the authors develop the pointwise theory for blow-up. They introduce new ideas and methods that lead to sharp pointwise estimates. These estimates have important applications when dealing with sharp constant problems (a case where the energy is minimal) and compactness results (a case where the energy is arbitrarily large). The authors carefully and thoroughly describe pointwise behavior when the energy is arbitrary. Intended to be as self-contained as possible, this accessible book will interest graduate students and researchers in a range of mathematical fields.

This book collects invited contributions by specialists in the domain of elliptic partial differential equations and geometric flows. There are introductory survey articles as well as papers presenting the latest research results. Among the topics covered are blow-up theory for second order elliptic equations; bubbling phenomena in the harmonic map heat flow; applications of scans and fractional power integrands; heat flow for the p-energy functional; Ricci flow and evolution by curvature of networks of curves in the plane.

Concentration analysis provides, in settings without a priori available compactness, a manageable structural description for the functional sequences intended to approximate solutions of partial differential equations. Since the introduction of concentration compactness in the 1980s, concentration analysis today is formalized on the functional-analytic level as well as in terms of wavelets, extends to a wide range of spaces, involves much larger class of invariances than the original Euclidean rescalings and has a broad scope of applications to PDE. This book represents current research in concentration and blow-up phenomena from various perspectives, with a variety of applications to elliptic and evolution PDEs, as well as a systematic functional-analytic background for concentration phenomena, presented by profile decompositions based on wavelet theory and cocompact imbeddings.

Micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS), which combine electronics with miniature-size mechanical devices, are essential components of modern technology. This title offers an introduction to many methods of nonlinear analysis and PDEs through the analysis of a set of equations that have enormous practical significance.

This proceedings volume contains articles from the conference held at Rutgers University in honor of Haim Brezis and Felix Browder, two mathematicians who have had a profound impact on partial differential equations, functional analysis, and geometry. Mathematicians attending the conference had interests in noncompact variational problems, pseudo-holomorphic curves, singular and smooth solutions to problems admitting a conformal (or some group) invariance, Sobolev spaces on manifolds, and configuration spaces. One day of the proceedings was devoted to Einstein equations and related topics. Contributors to the volume include, among others, Sun-Yung A. Chang, Luis A. Caffarelli, Carlos E. Kenig, and Gang Tian. The material is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in problems in analysis and differential equations on noncompact manifolds.

This monograph discusses specific examples of selfdual gauge field structures, including the Chern–Simons model, the abelian–Higgs model, and Yang–Mills gauge field theory. The author builds a foundation for gauge theory and selfdual vortices by introducing the basic mathematical language of gauge theory and formulating examples of Chern–Simons–Higgs theories (in both abelian and non-abelian settings). Thereafter, the Electroweak theory and self-gravitating Electroweak strings are examined. The final chapters treat elliptic problems involving Chern–Simmons models, concentration-compactness principles, and Maxwell–Chern–Simons vortices.