This book presents recent and very elementary developments of a theory of multiplication of distributions in the field of explicit and numerical solutions of systems of PDEs of physics (nonlinear elasticity, elastoplasticity, hydrodynamics, multifluid flows, acoustics). The prerequisites are kept to introductory calculus level so that the book remains accessible at the same time to pure mathematicians (as a smoothand somewhat heuristic introdcution to this theory) and to applied mathematicians, numerical engineers and theoretical physicists (as a tool to treat problems involving products of distributions).

This volume presents a new mathematical theory of generalized functions, more general than Distribution Theory, giving a rigorous mathematical sense to any product of a finite number of distributions and to heuristic computations of Quantum Field Theory. Although the physical motivations are emphasized, the book is also addressed to mathematicians with no knowledge of physics. This work opens a new domain of research in both pure and applied mathematics.

This textbook is an application-oriented introduction to the theory of distributions, a powerful tool used in mathematical analysis. The treatment emphasizes applications that relate distributions to linear partial differential equations and Fourier analysis problems found in mechanics, optics, quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and signal analysis. The book is motivated by many exercises, hints, and solutions that guide the reader along a path requiring only a minimal mathematical background.

This important book provides a concise exposition of the basic ideas of the theory of distribution and Fourier transforms and its application to partial differential equations. The author clearly presents the ideas, precise statements of theorems, and explanations of ideas behind the proofs. Methods in which techniques are used in applications are illustrated, and many problems are included. The book also introduces several significant recent topics, including pseudodifferential operators, wave front sets, wavelets, and quasicrystals. Background mathematical prerequisites have been kept to a minimum, with only a knowledge of multidimensional calculus and basic complex variables needed to fully understand the concepts in the book.A Guide to Distribution Theory and Fourier Transforms can serve as a textbook for parts of a course on Applied Analysis or Methods of Mathematical Physics, and in fact it is used that way at Cornell.

A self-contained mathematical introduction that concentrates on the essential results important to non-specialists.