Nonlinear Waves in Integrable and Nonintegrable Systems presents cutting-edge developments in the theory and experiments of nonlinear waves. Its comprehensive coverage of analytical and numerical methods for nonintegrable systems is the first of its kind. This book is intended for researchers and graduate students working in applied mathematics and various physical subjects where nonlinear wave phenomena arise (such as nonlinear optics, Bose-Einstein condensates, and fluid dynamics).
This volume contains notes of the lectures given at the Courant Institute and a DMV-Seminar at Oberwolfach. The focus is on the recent work of the authors on semilinear wave equations with critical Sobolev exponents and on wave maps in two space dimensions. Background material and references have been added to make the notes self-contained. The book is suitable for use in a graduate-level course on the topic. Titles in this series are co-published with the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.
The Białowieża workshops on Geometric Methods in Physics are among the most important meetings in the field. Every year some 80 to 100 participants from both mathematics and physics join to discuss new developments and to interchange ideas. This volume contains contributions by selected speakers at the XXX meeting in 2011 as well as additional review articles and shows that the workshop remains at the cutting edge of ongoing research. The 2011 workshop focussed on the works of the late Felix A. Berezin (1931–1980) on the occasion of his 80th anniversary as well as on Bogdan Mielnik and Stanisław Lech Woronowicz on their 75th and 70th birthday, respectively. The groundbreaking work of Berezin is discussed from today’s perspective by presenting an overview of his ideas and their impact on further developments. He was, among other fields, active in representation theory, general concepts of quantization and coherent states, supersymmetry and supermanifolds. Another focus lies on the accomplishments of Bogdan Mielnik and Stanisław Lech Woronowicz. Mielnik’s geometric approach to the description of quantum mixed states, the method of quantum state manipulation and their important implications for quantum computing and quantum entanglement are discussed as well as the intricacies of the quantum time operator. Woronowicz’ fruitful notion of a compact quantum group and related topics are also addressed.
This volume provides an in-depth treatment of several equations and systems of mathematical physics, describing the propagation and interaction of nonlinear waves as different modifications of these: the KdV equation, Fornberg-Whitham equation, Vakhnenko equation, Camassa-Holm equation, several versions of the NLS equation, Kaup-Kupershmidt equation, Boussinesq paradigm, and Manakov system, amongst others, as well as symmetrizable quasilinear hyperbolic systems arising in fluid dynamics.Readers not familiar with the complicated methods used in the theory of the equations of mathematical physics (functional analysis, harmonic analysis, spectral theory, topological methods, a priori estimates, conservation laws) can easily be acquainted here with different solutions of some nonlinear PDEs written in a sharp form (waves), with their geometrical visualization and their interpretation. In many cases, explicit solutions (waves) having specific physical interpretation (solitons, kinks, peakons, ovals, loops, rogue waves) are found and their interactions are studied and geometrically visualized. To do this, classical methods coming from the theory of ordinary differential equations, the dressing method, Hirota's direct method and the method of the simplest equation are introduced and applied. At the end, the paradifferential approach is used.This volume is self-contained and equipped with simple proofs. It contains many exercises and examples arising from the applications in mechanics, physics, optics and, quantum mechanics.
In the study of integrable systems, two different approaches in particular have attracted considerable attention during the past twenty years. (1) The inverse scattering transform (IST), using complex function theory, which has been employed to solve many physically significant equations, the `soliton' equations. (2) Twistor theory, using differential geometry, which has been used to solve the self-dual Yang--Mills (SDYM) equations, a four-dimensional system having important applications in mathematical physics. Both soliton and the SDYM equations have rich algebraic structures which have been extensively studied. Recently, it has been conjectured that, in some sense, all soliton equations arise as special cases of the SDYM equations; subsequently many have been discovered as either exact or asymptotic reductions of the SDYM equations. Consequently what seems to be emerging is that a natural, physically significant system such as the SDYM equations provides the basis for a unifying framework underlying this class of integrable systems, i.e. `soliton' systems. This book contains several articles on the reduction of the SDYM equations to soliton equations and the relationship between the IST and twistor methods. The majority of nonlinear evolution equations are nonintegrable, and so asymptotic, numerical perturbation and reduction techniques are often used to study such equations. This book also contains articles on perturbed soliton equations. Painlevé analysis of partial differential equations, studies of the Painlevé equations and symmetry reductions of nonlinear partial differential equations. (ABSTRACT) In the study of integrable systems, two different approaches in particular have attracted considerable attention during the past twenty years; the inverse scattering transform (IST), for `soliton' equations and twistor theory, for the self-dual Yang--Mills (SDYM) equations. This book contains several articles on the reduction of the SDYM equations to soliton equations and the relationship between the IST and twistor methods. Additionally, it contains articles on perturbed soliton equations, Painlevé analysis of partial differential equations, studies of the Painlevé equations and symmetry reductions of nonlinear partial differential equations.
This volume presents original research papers and expository articles from the conference in honour of Walter A. Strauss's 60th birthday, held at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The book offers a collection of original papers and expository articles mainly devoted to the study of nonlinear wave equations. The articles cover a wide range of topics, including scattering theory, dispersive waves, classical field theory, mathematical fluid dynamics, kinetic theory, stability theory, and variational methods. The book offers a cross-section of current trends and research directions in the study of nonlinear wave equations and related topics.
For too many students, mathematics consists of facts in a vacuum, to be memorized because the instructor says so, and to be forgotten when the course of study is completed. In this all-too-common scenario, young learners often miss the chance to develop skills-specifically, reasoning skills-that can serve them for a lifetime. The elegant pages of Teaching Mathematical Reasoning in Secondary School Classrooms propose a more positive solution by presenting a reasoning- and discussion-based approach to teaching mathematics, emphasizing the connections between ideas, or why math works. The teachers whose work forms the basis of the book create a powerful record of methods, interactions, and decisions (including dealing with challenges and impasses) involving this elusive topic. And because this approach shifts the locus of authority from the instructor to mathematics itself, students gain a system of knowledge that they can apply not only to discrete tasks relating to numbers, but also to the larger world of people and the humanities. A sampling of the topics covered: Whole-class discussion methods for teaching mathematics reasoning. Learning mathematical reasoning through tasks. Teaching mathematics using the five strands. Classroom strategies for promoting mathematical reasoning. Maximizing student contributions in the classroom. Overcoming student resistance to mathematical conversations. Teaching Mathematical Reasoning in Secondary School Classrooms makes a wealth of cutting-edge strategies available to mathematics teachers and teacher educators. This book is an invaluable resource for researchers in mathematics and curriculum reform and of great interest to teacher educators and teachers.
