This book deals with such important subjects as variational methods, the continuity method, parabolic equations on fiber bundles, ideas concerning points of concentration, blowing-up technique, geometric and topological methods. It explores important geometric problems that are of interest to many mathematicians and scientists but have only recently been partially solved.
This volume is intended to allow mathematicians and physicists, especially analysts, to learn about nonlinear problems which arise in Riemannian Geometry. Analysis on Riemannian manifolds is a field currently undergoing great development. More and more, analysis proves to be a very powerful means for solving geometrical problems. Conversely, geometry may help us to solve certain problems in analysis. There are several reasons why the topic is difficult and interesting. It is very large and almost unexplored. On the other hand, geometric problems often lead to limiting cases of known problems in analysis, sometimes there is even more than one approach, and the already existing theoretical studies are inadequate to solve them. Each problem has its own particular difficulties. Nevertheless there exist some standard methods which are useful and which we must know to apply them. One should not forget that our problems are motivated by geometry, and that a geometrical argument may simplify the problem under investigation. Examples of this kind are still too rare. This work is neither a systematic study of a mathematical field nor the presentation of a lot of theoretical knowledge. On the contrary, I do my best to limit the text to the essential knowledge. I define as few concepts as possible and give only basic theorems which are useful for our topic. But I hope that the reader will find this sufficient to solve other geometrical problems by analysis.
Easily accessible Includes recent developments Assumes very little knowledge of differentiable manifolds and functional analysis Particular emphasis on topics related to mirror symmetry (SUSY, Kaehler-Einstein metrics, Tian-Todorov lemma)
This book collects invited contributions by specialists in the domain of elliptic partial differential equations and geometric flows. There are introductory survey articles as well as papers presenting the latest research results. Among the topics covered are blow-up theory for second order elliptic equations; bubbling phenomena in the harmonic map heat flow; applications of scans and fractional power integrands; heat flow for the p-energy functional; Ricci flow and evolution by curvature of networks of curves in the plane.
Unlike many other texts on differential geometry, this textbook also offers interesting applications to geometric mechanics and general relativity. The first part is a concise and self-contained introduction to the basics of manifolds, differential forms, metrics and curvature. The second part studies applications to mechanics and relativity including the proofs of the Hawking and Penrose singularity theorems. It can be independently used for one-semester courses in either of these subjects. The main ideas are illustrated and further developed by numerous examples and over 300 exercises. Detailed solutions are provided for many of these exercises, making An Introduction to Riemannian Geometry ideal for self-study.
Geometric analysis is one of the most active research fields nowadays. The interplay between geometric and analytic techniques is at the core of recent remarkable advances in differential geometry and topology. This book is aimed to be a comprehensive introduction to the basic geometric facts and PDE tools as well as to some current research topics on hypersurfaces with prescribed mean curvature in Riemannian manifolds.
Elliptic equations of critical Sobolev growth have been the target of investigation for decades because they have proved to be of great importance in analysis, geometry, and physics. The equations studied here are of the well-known Yamabe type. They involve Schrödinger operators on the left hand side and a critical nonlinearity on the right hand side. A significant development in the study of such equations occurred in the 1980s. It was discovered that the sequence splits into a solution of the limit equation--a finite sum of bubbles--and a rest that converges strongly to zero in the Sobolev space consisting of square integrable functions whose gradient is also square integrable. This splitting is known as the integral theory for blow-up. In this book, the authors develop the pointwise theory for blow-up. They introduce new ideas and methods that lead to sharp pointwise estimates. These estimates have important applications when dealing with sharp constant problems (a case where the energy is minimal) and compactness results (a case where the energy is arbitrarily large). The authors carefully and thoroughly describe pointwise behavior when the energy is arbitrary. Intended to be as self-contained as possible, this accessible book will interest graduate students and researchers in a range of mathematical fields.
* A geometric approach to problems in physics, many of which cannot be solved by any other methods * Text is enriched with good examples and exercises at the end of every chapter * Fine for a course or seminar directed at grad and adv. undergrad students interested in elliptic and hyperbolic differential equations, differential geometry, calculus of variations, quantum mechanics, and physics
This volume offers an expanded version of lectures given at the Courant Institute on the theory of Sobolev spaces on Riemannian manifolds. ``Several surprising phenomena appear when studying Sobolev spaces on manifolds,'' according to the author. ``Questions that are elementary for Euclidean space become challenging and give rise to sophisticated mathematics, where the geometry of the manifold plays a central role.'' The volume is organized into nine chapters. Chapter 1 offers a brief introduction to differential and Riemannian geometry. Chapter 2 deals with the general theory of Sobolev spaces for compact manifolds. Chapter 3 presents the general theory of Sobolev spaces for complete, noncompact manifolds. Best constants problems for compact manifolds are discussed in Chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 6 presents special types of Sobolev inequalities under constraints. Best constants problems for complete noncompact manifolds are discussed in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 deals with Euclidean-type Sobolev inequalities. And Chapter 9 discusses the influence of symmetries on Sobolev embeddings. An appendix offers brief notes on the case of manifolds with boundaries. This topic is a field undergoing great development at this time. However, several important questions remain open. So a substantial part of the book is devoted to the concept of best constants, which appeared to be crucial for solving limiting cases of some classes of PDEs. The volume is highly self-contained. No familiarity is assumed with differentiable manifolds and Riemannian geometry, making the book accessible to a broad audience of readers, including graduate students and researchers.