A First Course in the Calculus of Variations

A First Course in the Calculus of Variations

Author: Mark Kot

Publisher: American Mathematical Society

Published: 2014-10-06

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1470414953

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This book is intended for a first course in the calculus of variations, at the senior or beginning graduate level. The reader will learn methods for finding functions that maximize or minimize integrals. The text lays out important necessary and sufficient conditions for extrema in historical order, and it illustrates these conditions with numerous worked-out examples from mechanics, optics, geometry, and other fields. The exposition starts with simple integrals containing a single independent variable, a single dependent variable, and a single derivative, subject to weak variations, but steadily moves on to more advanced topics, including multivariate problems, constrained extrema, homogeneous problems, problems with variable endpoints, broken extremals, strong variations, and sufficiency conditions. Numerous line drawings clarify the mathematics. Each chapter ends with recommended readings that introduce the student to the relevant scientific literature and with exercises that consolidate understanding.


Introduction to the Calculus of Variations

Introduction to the Calculus of Variations

Author: Hans Sagan

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-04-26

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 048613802X

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Provides a thorough understanding of calculus of variations and prepares readers for the study of modern optimal control theory. Selected variational problems and over 400 exercises. Bibliography. 1969 edition.


The Calculus of Variations

The Calculus of Variations

Author: Bruce van Brunt

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-04-18

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0387216979

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Suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of mathematics, physics, or engineering, this introduction to the calculus of variations focuses on variational problems involving one independent variable. It also discusses more advanced topics such as the inverse problem, eigenvalue problems, and Noether’s theorem. The text includes numerous examples along with problems to help students consolidate the material.


A Primer on the Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control Theory

A Primer on the Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control Theory

Author: Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0821847724

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The calculus of variations is used to find functions that optimize quantities expressed in terms of integrals. Optimal control theory seeks to find functions that minimize cost integrals for systems described by differential equations. This book is an introduction to both the classical theory of the calculus of variations and the more modern developments of optimal control theory from the perspective of an applied mathematician. It focuses on understanding concepts and how to apply them. The range of potential applications is broad: the calculus of variations and optimal control theory have been widely used in numerous ways in biology, criminology, economics, engineering, finance, management science, and physics. Applications described in this book include cancer chemotherapy, navigational control, and renewable resource harvesting. The prerequisites for the book are modest: the standard calculus sequence, a first course on ordinary differential equations, and some facility with the use of mathematical software. It is suitable for an undergraduate or beginning graduate course, or for self study. It provides excellent preparation for more advanced books and courses on the calculus of variations and optimal control theory.


Calculus of Variations

Calculus of Variations

Author: I. M. Gelfand

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-04-26

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 0486135012

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Fresh, lively text serves as a modern introduction to the subject, with applications to the mechanics of systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom. Ideal for math and physics students.


Calculus of Variations

Calculus of Variations

Author: Charles R. MacCluer

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2013-05-20

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0486278301

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First truly up-to-date treatment offers a simple introduction to optimal control, linear-quadratic control design, and more. Broad perspective features numerous exercises, hints, outlines, and appendixes, including a practical discussion of MATLAB. 2005 edition.


Functional Analysis, Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control

Functional Analysis, Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control

Author: Francis Clarke

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-02-06

Total Pages: 589

ISBN-13: 1447148207

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Functional analysis owes much of its early impetus to problems that arise in the calculus of variations. In turn, the methods developed there have been applied to optimal control, an area that also requires new tools, such as nonsmooth analysis. This self-contained textbook gives a complete course on all these topics. It is written by a leading specialist who is also a noted expositor. This book provides a thorough introduction to functional analysis and includes many novel elements as well as the standard topics. A short course on nonsmooth analysis and geometry completes the first half of the book whilst the second half concerns the calculus of variations and optimal control. The author provides a comprehensive course on these subjects, from their inception through to the present. A notable feature is the inclusion of recent, unifying developments on regularity, multiplier rules, and the Pontryagin maximum principle, which appear here for the first time in a textbook. Other major themes include existence and Hamilton-Jacobi methods. The many substantial examples, and the more than three hundred exercises, treat such topics as viscosity solutions, nonsmooth Lagrangians, the logarithmic Sobolev inequality, periodic trajectories, and systems theory. They also touch lightly upon several fields of application: mechanics, economics, resources, finance, control engineering. Functional Analysis, Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control is intended to support several different courses at the first-year or second-year graduate level, on functional analysis, on the calculus of variations and optimal control, or on some combination. For this reason, it has been organized with customization in mind. The text also has considerable value as a reference. Besides its advanced results in the calculus of variations and optimal control, its polished presentation of certain other topics (for example convex analysis, measurable selections, metric regularity, and nonsmooth analysis) will be appreciated by researchers in these and related fields.