Variational Methods

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. The Direct Methods in the Calculus of Variations

   • Michael Struwe

   Pages 1-73

3. Minimax Methods

   • Michael Struwe

   Pages 74-168

4. Limit Cases of the Palais-Smale Condition

   • Michael Struwe

   Pages 169-236

5. Back Matter

   Pages 237-272

   PDF

Hilbert's talk at the second International Congress of 1900 in Paris marked the beginning of a new era in the calculus of variations. A development began which, within a few decades, brought tremendous success, highlighted by the 1929 theorem of Ljusternik and Schnirelman on the existence of three distinct prime closed geodesics on any compact surface of genus zero, and the 1930/31 solution of Plateau's problem by Douglas and Radò. The book gives a concise introduction to variational methods and presents an overview of areas of current research in this field. This new edition has been substantially enlarged, a new chapter on the Yamabe problem has been added and the references have been updated. All topics are illustrated by carefully chosen examples, representing the current state of the art in their field.

• Hamiltonian Systems
• Mathematica
• Mathematical Physics
• Partial Differential Equations
• calculus
• calculus of variations
• differential equation
• hamiltonian system
• maximum
• minimum
• partial differential equation

From the reviews of the fourth edition:

"The fourth edition of Michael Struwe’s book Variational Methods: Applications to Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations and Hamiltonian Systems was published in 2008, 18 years after the first edition. … The bibliography alone would make it a valuable reference as it contains nearly 500 references. … Struwe’s book is addressed to researchers in differential geometry and partial differential equations." (John D. Cook, MAA Online, January, 2009)

• Mathematik, ETH-Zentrum, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

  Michael Struwe

Policies and ethics