This book covers functional analysis and its applications to continuum mechanics.; The mathematical material is treated in a non-abstract manner and is fully illuminated by the underlying mechanical ideas.; The presentation is concise but complete, and is intended for specialists in continuum mechanics who wish to understand the mathematical underpinnings of the discipline.; Graduate students and researchers in mathematics, physics, and engineering will find this book useful.; Exercises and examples are included throughout with detailed solutions provided in the appendix.

This book started its life as a series of lectures given by the second author from the 1970’s onwards to students in their third and fourth years in the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics at Rostov State University. For these lectures there was also an audience of engineers and applied mechanicists who wished to understand the functional analysis used in contemporary research in their fields. These people were not so much interested in functional analysis itself as in its applications; they did not want to be told about functional analysis in its most abstract form, but wanted a guided tour through those parts of the analysis needed for their applications. The lecture notes evolved over the years as the first author started to make more formal typewritten versions incorporating new material. About 1990 the first author prepared an English version and submitted it to Kluwer Academic Publishers for inclusion in the series Solid Mechanics and its Applications. At that state the notes were divided into three long chapters covering linear and nonlinear analysis. As Series Editor, the third author started to edit them. The requirements of lecture notes and books are vastly different. A book has to be complete (in some sense), self contained, and able to be read without the help of an instructor.

Even the simplest mathematical abstraction of the phenomena of reality the real line-can be regarded from different points of view by different mathematical disciplines. For example, the algebraic approach to the study of the real line involves describing its properties as a set to whose elements we can apply" operations," and obtaining an algebraic model of it on the basis of these properties, without regard for the topological properties. On the other hand, we can focus on the topology of the real line and construct a formal model of it by singling out its" continuity" as a basis for the model. Analysis regards the line, and the functions on it, in the unity of the whole system of their algebraic and topological properties, with the fundamental deductions about them obtained by using the interplay between the algebraic and topological structures. The same picture is observed at higher stages of abstraction. Algebra studies linear spaces, groups, rings, modules, and so on. Topology studies structures of a different kind on arbitrary sets, structures that give mathe matical meaning to the concepts of a limit, continuity, a neighborhood, and so on. Functional analysis takes up topological linear spaces, topological groups, normed rings, modules of representations of topological groups in topological linear spaces, and so on. Thus, the basic object of study in functional analysis consists of objects equipped with compatible algebraic and topological structures.

"The book contains an enormous amount of information — mathematical, bibliographical and historical — interwoven with some outstanding heuristic discussions." — Mathematical Reviews. In this massive graduate-level study, Emeritus Professor Edwards (Australian National University, Canberra) presents a balanced account of both the abstract theory and the applications of linear functional analysis. Written for readers with a basic knowledge of set theory, general topology, and vector spaces, the book includes an abundance of carefully chosen illustrative examples and excellent exercises at the end of each chapter. Beginning with a chapter of preliminaries on set theory and topology, Dr. Edwards then presents detailed, in-depth discussions of vector spaces and topological vector spaces, the Hahn-Banach theorem (including applications to potential theory, approximation theory, game theory, and other fields) and fixed-point theorems. Subsequent chapters focus on topological duals of certain spaces: radon measures, distribution and linear partial differential equations, open mapping and closed graph theorems, boundedness principles, duality theory, the theory of compact operators and the Krein-Milman theorem and its applications to commutative harmonic analysis. Clearly and concisely written, Dr. Edwards's book offers rewarding reading to mathematicians and physicists with an interest in the important field of functional analysis. Because of the broad scope of its coverage, this volume will be especially valuable to the reader with a basic knowledge of functional analysis who wishes to learn about parts of the subject other than his own specialties. A comprehensive 32-page bibliography supplies a rich source of references to the basic literature.

Presents a comprehensive treatment of quantum mechanics from a mathematics perspective. Including traditional topics, like classical mechanics, mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics, quantization, and the Schrodinger equation, this book gives a mathematical treatment of systems of identical particles with spin.

This book offers a brief, practically complete, and relatively simple introduction to functional analysis. It also illustrates the application of functional analytic methods to the science of continuum mechanics. Abstract but powerful mathematical notions are tightly interwoven with physical ideas in the treatment of nontrivial boundary value problems for mechanical objects. This second edition includes more extended coverage of the classical and abstract portions of functional analysis. Taken together, the first three chapters now constitute a regular text on applied functional analysis. This potential use of the book is supported by a significantly extended set of exercises with hints and solutions. A new appendix, providing a convenient listing of essential inequalities and imbedding results, has been added. The book should appeal to graduate students and researchers in physics, engineering, and applied mathematics. Reviews of first edition: "This book covers functional analysis and its applications to continuum mechanics. The presentation is concise but complete, and is intended for readers in continuum mechanics who wish to understand the mathematical underpinnings of the discipline. ... Detailed solutions of the exercises are provided in an appendix." (L’Enseignment Mathematique, Vol. 49 (1-2), 2003) "The reader comes away with a profound appreciation both of the physics and its importance, and of the beauty of the functional analytic method, which, in skillful hands, has the power to dissolve and clarify these difficult problems as peroxide does clotted blood. Numerous exercises ... test the reader’s comprehension at every stage. Summing Up: Recommended." (F. E. J. Linton, Choice, September, 2003)