Contributions to Nonlinear Functional Analysis contains the proceedings of a Symposium on Nonlinear Functional Analysis, held in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 12-14, 1971, under the sponsorship of the University of Wisconsin's Mathematics Research Center. The symposium provided a forum for discussing various topics related to nonlinear functional analysis, from transversality in nonlinear eigenvalue problems to monotonicity methods in Hilbert spaces and some applications to nonlinear partial differential equations. Comprised of 15 chapters, this book begins by presenting an extension of Leray-Schauder degree and an application to a nonlinear elliptic boundary value problem. The discussion then turns to the use of degree theory to prove the existence of global continua of solutions of nonlinear eigenvalue problems; transversality in nonlinear eigenvalue problems; and how variational structure can be used to study some local questions in bifurcation theory. Subsequent chapters deal with the notion of monotone operators and monotonicity theory; a nonlinear version of the Hille-Yosida theorem; a version of the penalty method for the Navier-Stokes equations; and various types of weak solutions for minimizing problems in the spirit of duality theory for convex functionals. This monograph will be of interest to students and practitioners in the field of mathematics who want to learn more about nonlinear functional analysis.

Functional analysis is a broad mathematical area with strong connections to many domains within mathematics and physics. This book, based on a first-year graduate course taught by Robert J. Zimmer at the University of Chicago, is a complete, concise presentation of fundamental ideas and theorems of functional analysis. It introduces essential notions and results from many areas of mathematics to which functional analysis makes important contributions, and it demonstrates the unity of perspective and technique made possible by the functional analytic approach. Zimmer provides an introductory chapter summarizing measure theory and the elementary theory of Banach and Hilbert spaces, followed by a discussion of various examples of topological vector spaces, seminorms defining them, and natural classes of linear operators. He then presents basic results for a wide range of topics: convexity and fixed point theorems, compact operators, compact groups and their representations, spectral theory of bounded operators, ergodic theory, commutative C*-algebras, Fourier transforms, Sobolev embedding theorems, distributions, and elliptic differential operators. In treating all of these topics, Zimmer's emphasis is not on the development of all related machinery or on encyclopedic coverage but rather on the direct, complete presentation of central theorems and the structural framework and examples needed to understand them. Sets of exercises are included at the end of each chapter. For graduate students and researchers in mathematics who have mastered elementary analysis, this book is an entrée and reference to the full range of theory and applications in which functional analysis plays a part. For physics students and researchers interested in these topics, the lectures supply a thorough mathematical grounding.

History of Functional Analysis presents functional analysis as a rather complex blend of algebra and topology, with its evolution influenced by the development of these two branches of mathematics. The book adopts a narrower definition—one that is assumed to satisfy various algebraic and topological conditions. A moment of reflections shows that this already covers a large part of modern analysis, in particular, the theory of partial differential equations. This volume comprises nine chapters, the first of which focuses on linear differential equations and the Sturm-Liouville problem. The succeeding chapters go on to discuss the ""crypto-integral"" equations, including the Dirichlet principle and the Beer-Neumann method; the equation of vibrating membranes, including the contributions of Poincare and H.A. Schwarz's 1885 paper; and the idea of infinite dimension. Other chapters cover the crucial years and the definition of Hilbert space, including Fredholm's discovery and the contributions of Hilbert; duality and the definition of normed spaces, including the Hahn-Banach theorem and the method of the gliding hump and Baire category; spectral theory after 1900, including the theories and works of F. Riesz, Hilbert, von Neumann, Weyl, and Carleman; locally convex spaces and the theory of distributions; and applications of functional analysis to differential and partial differential equations. This book will be of interest to practitioners in the fields of mathematics and statistics.