Plateau's problem is a scientific trend in modern mathematics that unites several different problems connected with the study of minimal surfaces. In its simplest version, Plateau's problem is concerned with finding a surface of least area that spans a given fixed one-dimensional contour in three-dimensional space--perhaps the best-known example of such surfaces is provided by soap films. From the mathematical point of view, such films are described as solutions of a second-order partial differential equation, so their behavior is quite complicated and has still not been thoroughly studied. Soap films, or, more generally, interfaces between physical media in equilibrium, arise in many applied problems in chemistry, physics, and also in nature. In applications, one finds not only two-dimensional but also multidimensional minimal surfaces that span fixed closed ``contours'' in some multidimensional Riemannian space. An exact mathematical statement of the problem of finding a surface of least area or volume requires the formulation of definitions of such fundamental concepts as a surface, its boundary, minimality of a surface, and so on. It turns out that there are several natural definitions of these concepts, which permit the study of minimal surfaces by different, and complementary, methods. In the framework of this comparatively small book it would be almost impossible to cover all aspects of the modern problem of Plateau, to which a vast literature has been devoted. However, this book makes a unique contribution to this literature, for the authors' guiding principle was to present the material with a maximum of clarity and a minimum of formalization. Chapter 1 contains historical background on Plateau's problem, referring to the period preceding the 1930s, and a description of its connections with the natural sciences. This part is intended for a very wide circle of readers and is accessible, for example, to first-year graduate students. The next part of the book, comprising Chapters 2-5, gives a fairly complete survey of various modern trends in Plateau's problem. This section is accessible to second- and third-year students specializing in physics and mathematics. The remaining chapters present a detailed exposition of one of these trends (the homotopic version of Plateau's problem in terms of stratified multivarifolds) and the Plateau problem in homogeneous symplectic spaces. This last part is intended for specialists interested in the modern theory of minimal surfaces and can be used for special courses; a command of the concepts of functional analysis is assumed.

This book contains recent results from a group focusing on minimal surfaces in the Moscow State University seminar on modern geometrical methods, headed by A. V. Bolsinov, A. T. Fomenko, and V. V. Trofimov. The papers collected here fall into three areas: one-dimensional minimal graphs on Riemannian surfaces and the Steiner problem, two-dimensional minimal surfaces and surfaces of constant mean curvature in three-dimensional Euclidean space, and multidimensional globally minimal and harmonic surfaces in Riemannian manifolds. The volume opens with an exposition of several important problems in the modern theory of minimal surfaces that will be of interest to newcomers to the field. Prepared with attention to clarity and accessibility, these papers will appeal to mathematicians, physicists, and other researchers interested in the application of geometrical methods to specific problems.

There are a number of very good books available on linear algebra. However, new results in linear algebra appear constantly, as do new, simpler, and better proofs of old results. Many of these results and proofs obtained in the past thirty years are accessible to undergraduate mathematics majors, but are usually ignored by textbooks. In addition, more than a few interesting old results are not covered in many books. In this book, the author provides the basics of linear algebra, with an emphasis on new results and on nonstandard and interesting proofs. The book features about 230 problems with complete solutions. It can serve as a supplementary text for an undergraduate or graduate algebra course.

Translated from the Chinese. Conformal mapping and boundary value problems are two major branches of complex function theory. The former is the geometric theory of analytic functions, and the latter is the analysis theory governing the close relationship between abstract theory and many concrete problems. Topics include applications of Cauchy type integrals, the Hilbert boundary value problem, quasiconformal mappings, and basic boundary value problems for harmonic functions. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book is dedicated to two problems. The first concerns the description of maximal exponential growth of functions or distributions for which the Cauchy problem is well posed. The descriptions presented in the language of the behaviour of the symbol in a complex domain. The second problem concerns the structure of and explicit formulas for differential operators with large automorphism groups. It is suitable as an advanced graduate text in courses in partial differential equations and the theory of distributions.

This book studies the problem of the decomposition of a given random variable introduction a sum of independent random variables (components). The central feature of the book is Feldman's use of powerful analytical techniques.