This monograph collects cutting-edge results and techniques for solving nonlinear partial differential equations using critical points. Including many of the author’s own contributions, a range of proofs are conveniently collected here, Because the material is approached with rigor, this book will serve as an invaluable resource for exploring recent developments in this active area of research, as well as the numerous ways in which critical point theory can be applied. Different methods for finding critical points are presented in the first six chapters. The specific situations in which these methods are applicable is explained in detail. Focus then shifts toward the book’s main subject: applications to problems in mathematics and physics. These include topics such as Schrödinger equations, Hamiltonian systems, elliptic systems, nonlinear wave equations, nonlinear optics, semilinear PDEs, boundary value problems, and equations with multiple solutions. Readers will find this collection of applications convenient and thorough, with detailed proofs appearing throughout. Critical Point Theory will be ideal for graduate students and researchers interested in solving differential equations, and for those studying variational methods. An understanding of fundamental mathematical analysis is assumed. In particular, the basic properties of Hilbert and Banach spaces are used.

This unique book focuses on critical point theory for strongly indefinite functionals in order to deal with nonlinear variational problems in areas such as physics, mechanics and economics. With the original ingredients of Lipschitz partitions of unity of gage spaces (nonmetrizable spaces), Lipschitz normality, and sufficient conditions for the normality, as well as existence-uniqueness of flow of ODE on gage spaces, the book presents for the first time a deformation theory in locally convex topological vector spaces. It also offers satisfying variational settings for homoclinic-type solutions to Hamiltonian systems, Schrödinger equations, Dirac equations and diffusion systems, and describes recent developments in studying these problems. The concepts and methods used open up new topics worthy of in-depth exploration, and link the subject with other branches of mathematics, such as topology and geometry, providing a perspective for further studies in these areas. The analytical framework can be used to handle more infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems.

Filling the gap between the mathematical literature and applications to domains, the authors have chosen to address the problem of wave collapse by several methods ranging from rigorous mathematical analysis to formal aymptotic expansions and numerical simulations.

A graduate text explaining how methods of nonlinear analysis can be used to tackle nonlinear differential equations. Suitable for mathematicians, physicists and engineers, topics covered range from elementary tools of bifurcation theory and analysis to critical point theory and elliptic partial differential equations. The book is amply illustrated with many exercises.

The symbiotic of these two topics creates a natural combination for a conference on dynamics. Topics covered include twist maps, the Aubrey-Mather theory, Arnold diffusion, qualitative and topological studies of systems, and variational methods, as well as specific topics such as Melnikov's procedure and the singularity properties of particular systems.

Many nonlinear problems in physics, engineering, biology and social sciences can be reduced to finding critical points of functionals. While minimax and Morse theories provide answers to many situations and problems on the existence of multiple critical points of a functional, they often cannot provide much-needed additional properties of these critical points. Sign-changing critical point theory has emerged as a new area of rich research on critical points of a differentiable functional with important applications to nonlinear elliptic PDEs. This book is intended for advanced graduate students and researchers involved in sign-changing critical point theory, PDEs, global analysis, and nonlinear functional analysis.

Many boundary value problems are equivalent to Au=O (1) where A : X --+ Y is a mapping between two Banach spaces. When the problem is variational, there exists a differentiable functional rand inf.