Vol. 1. The Sturm-Liouville expansion -- The singular case : series expansions -- The general singular case -- Examples -- The nature of the spectrum -- An alternative method : transform theory -- The distribution of the eigenvalues -- General theorems on eigenfunctions -- Convergence of the expansion under Fourier conditions -- Summability -- vol. 2. Expansions in a rectangle -- Expansions in the whole plane -- Extensions of the theory -- Variation of the eigenvalues : the problem of the general finite region -- Separable equations -- The nature of the spectrum -- The distribution of the eigenvalues -- Convergence and summability theorems -- Perturbation theory -- Perturbation theory involving continuous spectra -- The case in which q(x) is periodic -- Miscellaneous theorems.
The idea of expanding an arbitrary function in terms of the solutions of a second-order differential equation goes back to the time of Sturm and Liouville, more than a hundred years ago. The first satisfactory proofs were constructed by various authors early in the twentieth century. Later, a general theory of the singular cases was given by Weyl, who-based i on the theory of integral equations. An alternative method, proceeding via the general theory of linear operators in Hilbert space, is to be found in the treatise by Stone on this subject. Here I have adopted still another method. Proofs of these expansions by means of contour integration and the calculus of residues were given by Cauchy, and this method has been used by several authors in the ordinary Sturm-Liouville case. It is applied here to the general singular case. It is thus possible to avoid both the theory of integral equations and the general theory of linear operators, though of course we are sometimes doing no more than adapt the latter theory to the particular case considered. The ordinary Sturm-Liouville expansion is now well known. I therefore dismiss it as rapidly as possible, and concentrate on the singular cases, a class which seems to include all the most interesting examples. In order to present a clear-cut theory in a reasonable space, I have had to reject firmly all generalizations. Many of the arguments used extend quite easily to other cases, such as that of two simultaneous first-order equations. It seems that physicists are interested in some aspects of these questions. If any physicist finds here anything that he wishes to know, I shall indeed be delighted but it is to mathematicians that the book is addressed. I believe in the future of mathematics for physicists, but it seems desirable that a writer on this subject should understand physics as well as mathematics.
This collection of essays is intended as a tribute to Josef Maria Jauch on his sixtieth birthd~. Through his scientific work Jauch has justly earned an honored name in the community of theo retical physicists. Through his teaching and a long line of dis tinguished collaborators he has put an imprint on modern mathema tical physics. A number of Jauch's scientific collaborators, friends and admirers have contributed to this collection, and these essays reflect to some extent Jauch's own wide interests in the vast do main of theoretical physics. Josef Maria Jauch was born on 20 September 1914, the son of Josef Alois and Emma (nee Conti) Jauch, in Lucerne, Switzerland. Love of science was aroused in him early in his youth. At the age of twelve he came upon a popular book on astronomy, and an exam ple treated in this book mystified him. It was stated that if a planet travels around a centre of Newtonian attraction with a pe riod T, and if that planet were stopped and left to fall into the centre from any point of the circular orbit, it would arrive at the centre in the time T/I32. Young Josef puzzled about this for several months until he made his first scientific discovery : that this result could be derived from Kepler's third law in a quite elementary way.
Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations is a 12-chapter text that describes useful elementary methods of finding solutions using ordinary differential equations. This book starts with an introduction to the properties and complex variable of linear differential equations. Considerable chapters covered topics that are of particular interest in applications, including Laplace transforms, eigenvalue problems, special functions, Fourier series, and boundary-value problems of mathematical physics. Other chapters are devoted to some topics that are not directly concerned with finding solutions, and that should be of interest to the mathematics major, such as the theorems about the existence and uniqueness of solutions. The final chapters discuss the stability of critical points of plane autonomous systems and the results about the existence of periodic solutions of nonlinear equations. This book is great use to mathematicians, physicists, and undergraduate students of engineering and the science who are interested in applications of differential equation.
Advances in Shannon's Sampling Theory provides an up-to-date discussion of sampling theory, emphasizing the interaction between sampling theory and other branches of mathematical analysis, including the theory of boundary-value problems, frames, wavelets, multiresolution analysis, special functions, and functional analysis. The author not only traces the history and development of the theory, but also presents original research and results that have never before appeared in book form. Recent techniques covered include the Feichtinger-Gröchenig sampling theory; frames, wavelets, multiresolution analysis and sampling; boundary-value problems and sampling theorems; and special functions and sampling theorems. The book will interest graduate students and professionals in electrical engineering, communications, and applied mathematics.
The meeting explored current directions of research in delay differential equations and related dynamical systems and celebrated the contributions of Kenneth Cooke to this field on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The volume contains three survey papers reviewing three areas of current research and seventeen research contributions. The research articles deal with qualitative properties of solutions of delay differential equations and with bifurcation problems for such equations and other dynamical systems. A companion volume in the biomathematics series (LN in Biomathematics, Vol. 22) contains contributions on recent trends in population and mathematical biology.
