This advanced introduction emphasizes the variety of ideas, techniques, and applications of the subject.

Geometric flows have many applications in physics and geometry. The mean curvature flow occurs in the description of the interface evolution in certain physical models. This is related to the property that such a flow is the gradient flow of the area functional and therefore appears naturally in problems where a surface energy is minimized. The mean curvature flow also has many geometric applications, in analogy with the Ricci flow of metrics on abstract riemannian manifolds. One can use this flow as a tool to obtain classification results for surfaces satisfying certain curvature conditions, as well as to construct minimal surfaces. Geometric flows, obtained from solutions of geometric parabolic equations, can be considered as an alternative tool to prove isoperimetric inequalities. On the other hand, isoperimetric inequalities can help in treating several aspects of convergence of these flows. Isoperimetric inequalities have many applications in other fields of geometry, like hyperbolic manifolds.

Inequalities continue to play an essential role in mathematics. Perhaps, they form the last field comprehended and used by mathematicians in all areas of the discipline. Since the seminal work Inequalities (1934) by Hardy, Littlewood and Pólya, mathematicians have laboured to extend and sharpen their classical inequalities. New inequalities are discovered every year, some for their intrinsic interest whilst others flow from results obtained in various branches of mathematics. The study of inequalities reflects the many and various aspects of mathematics. On one hand, there is the systematic search for the basic principles and the study of inequalities for their own sake. On the other hand, the subject is the source of ingenious ideas and methods that give rise to seemingly elementary but nevertheless serious and challenging problems. There are numerous applications in a wide variety of fields, from mathematical physics to biology and economics. This volume contains the contributions of the participants of the Conference on Inequalities and Applications held in Noszvaj (Hungary) in September 2007. It is conceived in the spirit of the preceding volumes of the General Inequalities meetings held in Oberwolfach from 1976 to 1995 in the sense that it not only contains the latest results presented by the participants, but it is also a useful reference book for both lecturers and research workers. The contributions reflect the ramification of general inequalities into many areas of mathematics and also present a synthesis of results in both theory and practice.

The description for this book, Isoperimetric Inequalities in Mathematical Physics. (AM-27), Volume 27, will be forthcoming.

The study of isoperimetric inequalities involves a fascinating interplay of analysis, geometry and the theory of partial differential equations. Several conjectures have been made and while many have been resolved, a large number still remain open.One of the principal tools in the study of isoperimetric problems, especially when spherical symmetry is involved, is Schwarz symmetrization, which is also known as the spherically symmetric and decreasing rearrangement of functions. The aim of this book is to give an introduction to the theory of Schwarz symmetrization and study some of its applications.The book gives an modern and up-to-date treatment of the subject and includes several new results proved recently. Effort has been made to keep the exposition as simple and self-contained as possible. A knowledge of the existence theory of weak solutions of elliptic partial differential equations in Sobolev spaces is, however, assumed. Apart from this and a general mathematical maturity at the graduate level, there are no other prerequisites.

This collection of surveys consists in part of extensions of papers presented at the conferences on convexity at the Technische Universitat Wien (July 1981) and at the Universitat Siegen (July 1982) and in part of articles written at the invitation of the editors. This volume together with the earlier volume «Contributions to Geometry» edited by Tolke and Wills and published by Birkhauser in 1979 should give a fairly good account of many of the more important facets of convexity and its applications. Besides being an up to date reference work this volume can be used as an advanced treatise on convexity and related fields. We sincerely hope that it will inspire future research. Fenchel, in his paper, gives an historical account of convexity showing many important but not so well known facets. The articles of Papini and Phelps relate convexity to problems of functional analysis on nearest points, nonexpansive maps and the extremal structure of convex sets. A bridge to mathematical physics in the sense of Polya and Szego is provided by the survey of Bandle on isoperimetric inequalities, and Bachem's paper illustrates the importance of convexity for optimization. The contribution of Coxeter deals with a classical topic in geometry, the lines on the cubic surface whereas Leichtweiss shows the close connections between convexity and differential geometry. The exhaustive survey of Chalk on point lattices is related to algebraic number theory. A topic important for applications in biology, geology etc.