It is the main aim of this book to develop at an accessible, moderate level an $L_2$ theory for elliptic differential operators of second order on bounded smooth domains in Euclidean n-space, including a priori estimates for boundary-value problems in terms of (fractional) Sobolev spaces on domains and on their boundaries, together with a related spectral theory. The presentation is preceded by an introduction to the classical theory for the Laplace-Poisson equation, and some chapters provide required ingredients such as the theory of distributions, Sobolev spaces and the spectral theory in Hilbert spaces. The book grew out of two-semester courses the authors have given several times over a period of ten years at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. It is addressed to graduate students and mathematicians who have a working knowledge of calculus, measure theory and the basic elements of functional analysis (as usually covered by undergraduate courses) and who are seeking an accessible introduction to some aspects of the theory of function spaces and its applications to elliptic equations.

The theory of elliptic boundary problems is fundamental in analysis and the role of spaces of weakly differentiable functions (also called Sobolev spaces) is essential in this theory as a tool for analysing the regularity of the solutions. This book offers on the one hand a complete theory of Sobolev spaces, which are of fundamental importance for elliptic linear and non-linear differential equations, and explains on the other hand how the abstract methods of convex analysis can be combined with this theory to produce existence results for the solutions of non-linear elliptic boundary problems. The book also considers other kinds of functional spaces which are useful for treating variational problems such as the minimal surface problem. The main purpose of the book is to provide a tool for graduate and postgraduate students interested in partial differential equations, as well as a useful reference for researchers active in the field. Prerequisites include a knowledge of classical analysis, differential calculus, Banach and Hilbert spaces, integration and the related standard functional spaces, as well as the Fourier transformation on the Schwartz space. There are complete and detailed proofs of almost all the results announced and, in some cases, more than one proof is provided in order to highlight different features of the result. Each chapter concludes with a range of exercises of varying levels of difficulty, with hints to solutions provided for many of them.

This book grew out of a course taught in the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, which was tailored to the needs of the applied community of mathematicians, engineers, physicists etc., who were interested in studying the problems of mathematical physics in general and their approximate solutions on computer in particular. Almost all topics which will be essential for the study of Sobolev spaces and their applications in the elliptic boundary value problems and their finite element approximations are presented. Also many additional topics of interests for specific applied disciplines and engineering, for example, elementary solutions, derivatives of discontinuous functions of several variables, delta-convergent sequences of functions, Fourier series of distributions, convolution system of equations etc. have been included along with many interesting examples.

This textbook is a completely revised, updated, and expanded English edition of the important Analyse fonctionnelle (1983). In addition, it contains a wealth of problems and exercises (with solutions) to guide the reader. Uniquely, this book presents in a coherent, concise and unified way the main results from functional analysis together with the main results from the theory of partial differential equations (PDEs). Although there are many books on functional analysis and many on PDEs, this is the first to cover both of these closely connected topics. Since the French book was first published, it has been translated into Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Romanian, Greek and Chinese. The English edition makes a welcome addition to this list.

This book is the continuation of the "Theory of Function Spaces" trilogy, published by the same author in this series and now part of classic literature in the area of function spaces. It can be regarded as a supplement to these volumes and as an accompanying book to the textbook by D.D. Haroske and the author "Distributions, Sobolev spaces, elliptic equations".

Originally published: Boston: Pitman Advanced Pub. Program, 1985.

This 2000 book provided the first detailed exposition of the mathematical theory of boundary integral equations of the first kind on non-smooth domains.