This volume is the first to be devoted to the study of various properties of wide classes of degenerate elliptic operators of arbitrary order and pseudo-differential operators with multiple characteristics. Conditions for operators to be Fredholm in appropriate weighted Sobolev spaces are given, a priori estimates of solutions are derived, inequalities of the Grding type are proved, and the principal term of the spectral asymptotics for self-adjoint operators is computed. A generalization of the classical Weyl formula is proposed. Some results are new, even for operators of the second order. In addition, an analogue of the Boutet de Monvel calculus is developed and the index is computed. For postgraduate and research mathematicians, physicists and engineers whose work involves the solution of partial differential equations.

A self-contained treatment appropriate for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, this volume offers a detailed development of the necessary background for its survey of the nonlinear potential theory of superharmonic functions. Starting with the theory of weighted Sobolev spaces, the text advances to the theory of weighted variational capacity. Succeeding chapters investigate solutions and supersolutions of equations, with emphasis on refined Sobolev spaces, variational integrals, and harmonic functions. Chapter 7 defines superharmonic functions via the comparison principle, and chapters 8 through 14 form the core of the nonlinear potential theory of superharmonic functions. Topics include balayage; Perron's method, barriers, and resolutivity; polar sets; harmonic measure; fine topology; harmonic morphisms; and quasiregular mappings. The book concludes with explorations of axiomatic nonlinear potential theory and helpful appendixes.

The first part of the book is devoted to the transport equation for a given vector field, exploiting the lagrangian structure of solutions. It also treats the regularity of solutions of some degenerate elliptic equations, which appear in the eulerian counterpart of some transport models with congestion. The second part of the book deals with the lagrangian structure of solutions of the Vlasov-Poisson system, which describes the evolution of a system of particles under the self-induced gravitational/electrostatic field, and the existence of solutions of the semigeostrophic system, used in meteorology to describe the motion of large-scale oceanic/atmospheric flows.​

The goal of the book is to extend classical regularity theorems for solutions of linear elliptic partial differential equations to the context of fully nonlinear elliptic equations. This class of equations often arises in control theory, optimization, and other applications. The authors give a detailed presentation of all the necessary techniques. Instead of treating these techniques in their greatest generality, they outline the key ideas and prove the results needed for developing the subsequent theory. Topics discussed in the book include the theory of viscosity solutions for nonlinear equations, the Alexandroff estimate and Krylov-Safonov Harnack-type inequality for viscosity solutions, uniqueness theory for viscosity solutions, Evans and Krylov regularity theory for convex fully nonlinear equations, and regularity theory for fully nonlinear equations with variable coefficients.

In various applications, we can meet boundary value problems for elliptic equations whose ellipticity is disturbed in the sense that some degeneration or singularity appears. This bad behavior can be caused by the coefficients of the corresponding differential operator as well as by the solution itself. There are several very concrete problems in various practices which lead to such differential equations, such as glaciology, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, flows through porous media, differential geometry, celestial mechanics, climatology, and reaction-diffusion problems, among others. This book is based on research by the author on degenerate elliptic equations. This book will be a useful reference source for graduate students and researchers interested in differential equations.