From the reviews of the first printing, published as volume 30 of the Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences: "... I think the volume is a great success and an excellent preparation for future volumes in the series. ... the introductory style of Egorov and Shubin is .. attractive. ... a welcome addition to the literature and I am looking forward to the appearance of more volumes of the Encyclopedia in the near future. ..."
The Mathematical Intelligencer, 1993
"... According to the authors ... the work was written for nonspecialists and physicists but in my opinion almost every specialist will find something new ... in the text. The style is clear, the notations are chosen luckily. The most characteristic feature of the work is the accurate emphasis on the fundamental notions ..."
Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, 1993

"... On the whole, a thorough overview on the classical aspects of the topic may be gained from that volume."
Monatshefte für Mathematik, 1993 "... It is comparable in scope with the great Courant-Hilbert "Methods of Mathematical Physics", but it is much shorter, more up to date of course, and contains more elaborate analytical machinery. A general background in functional analysis is required, but much of the theory is explained from scratch, anad the physical background of the mathematical theory is kept clearly in mind. The book gives a good and readable overview of the subject. ... carefully written, well translated, and well produced."
The Mathematical Gazette, 1993

Klappentext

From the reviews: "...I think the volume is a great success ... a welcome addition to the literature ..." The Mathematical Intelligencer, 1993 "... It is comparable in scope with the great Courant-Hilbert Methods of Mathematical Physics, but it is much shorter, more up to date of course, and contains more elaborate analytical machinery...." The Mathematical Gazette, 1993

Inhalt

1. Basic Concepts.- 1. Basic Definitions and Examples.- 1.1. The Definition of a Linear Partial Differential Equation.- 1.2. The Role of Partial Differential Equations in the Mathematical Modeling of Physical Processes.- 1.3. Derivation of the Equation for the Longitudinal Elastic Vibrations of a Rod.- 1.4. Derivation of the Equation of Heat Conduction.- 1.5. The Limits of Applicability of Mathematical Models.- 1.6. Initial and Boundary Conditions.- 1.7. Examples of Linear Partial Differential Equations.- 1.8. The Concept of Well-Posedness of a Boundary-value Problem. The Cauchy Problem.- 2. The Cauchy-Kovalevskaya Theorem and Its Generalizations.- 2.1. The Cauchy-Kovalevskaya Theorem.- 2.2. An Example of Nonexistence of an Analytic Solution.- 2.3. Some Generalizations of the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya Theorem. Characteristics.- 2.4. Ovsyannikov's Theorem.- 2.5. Holmgren's Theorem.- 3. Classification of Linear Differential Equations. Reduction to Canonical Form and Characteristics.- 3.1. Classification of Second-Order Equations and Their Reduction to Canonical Form at a Point.- 3.2. Characteristics of Second-Order Equations and Reduction to Canonical Form of Second-Order Equations with Two Independent Variables.- 3.3. Ellipticity, Hyperbolicity, and Parabolicity for General Linear Differential Equations and Systems.- 3.4. Characteristics as Solutions of the Hamilton-Jacobi Equation.- 2. The Classical Theory.- 1. Distributions and Equations with Constant Coefficients.- 1.1. The Concept of a Distribution.- 1.2. The Spaces of Test Functions and Distributions.- 1.3. The Topology in the Space of Distributions.- 1.4. The Support of a Distribution. The General Form of Distributions.- 1.5. Differentiation of Distributions.- 1.6. Multiplication of a Distribution by a Smooth Function. Linear Differential Operators in Spaces of Distributions.- 1.7. Change of Variables and Homogeneous Distributions.- 1.8. The Direct or Tensor Product of Distributions.- 1.9. The Convolution of Distributions.- 1.10. The Fourier Transform of Tempered Distributions.- 1.11. The Schwartz Kernel of a Linear Operator.- 1.12. Fundamental Solutions for Operators with Constant Coefficients.- 1.13. A Fundamental Solution for the Cauchy Problem.- 1.14. Fundamental Solutions and Solutions of Inhomogeneous Equations.- 1.15. Duhamel's Principle for Equations with Constant Coefficients.- 1.16. The Fundamental Solution and the Behavior of Solutions at Infinity.- 1.17. Local Properties of Solutions of Homogeneous Equations with Constant Coefficients. Hypoellipticity and Ellipticity.- 1.18. Liouville's Theorem for Equations with Constant Coefficients.- 1.19. Isolated Singularities of Solutions of Hypoelliptic Equations.- 2. Elliptic Equations and Boundary-Value Problems.- 2.1. The Definition of Ellipticity. The Laplace and Poisson Equations.- 2.2. A Fundamental Solution for the Laplacian Operator. Green's Formula.- 2.3. Mean-Value Theorems for Harmonic Functions.- 2.4. The Maximum Principle for Harmonic Functions and the Normal Derivative Lemma.- 2.5. Uniqueness of the Classical Solutions of the Dirichlet and Neumann Problems for Laplace's Equation.- 2.6. Internal A Priori Estimates for Harmonic Functions. Harnack's Theorem.- 2.7. The Green's Function of the Dirichlet Problem for Laplace's Equation.- 2.8. The Green's Function and the Solution of the Dirichlet Problem for a Ball and a Half-Space. The Reflection Principle.- 2.9. Harnack's Inequality and Liouville's Theorem.- 2.10. The Removable Singularities Theorem.- 2.11. The Kelvin Transform and the Statement of Exterior Boundary-Value Problems for Laplace's Equation.- 2.12. Potentials.- 2.13. Application of Potentials to the Solution of Boundary-Value Problems.- 2.14. Boundary-Value Problems for Poisson's Equation in Hölder Spaces. Schauder Estimates.- 2.15. Capacity.- 2.16. The Dirichlet Problem in the Case of Arbitrary Regions (The Method of Balayage). Regularity of a Boundary Point. The Wiener Regularity Criterion.- 2.17. General Second-Order Elliptic Equations. Eigenvalues and Eigenfunctions of Elliptic Operators.- 2.18. Higher-Order Elliptic Equations and General Elliptic Boundary-Value Problems. The Shapiro-Lopatinskij Condition.- 2.19. The Index of an Elliptic Boundary-Value Problem.- 2.20. Ellipticity with a Parameter and Unique Solvability of Elliptic Boundary-Value Problems.- 3. Sobolev Spaces and Generalized Solutions of Boundary-Value Problems.- 3.1. The Fundamental Spaces.- 3.2. Imbedding and Trace Theorems.- 3.3. Generalized Solutions of Elliptic Boundary-Value Problems and Eigenvalue Problems.- 3.4. Generalized Solutions of Parabolic Boundary-Value Problems.- 3.5. Generalized Solutions of Hyperbolic Boundary-Value Problems.- 4. Hyperbolic Equations.- 4.1. Definitions and Examples.- 4.2. Hyperbolicity and Well-Posedness of the Cauchy Problem.- 4.3. Energy Estimates.- 4.4. The Speed of Propagation of Disturbances.- 4.5. Solution of the Cauchy Problem for the Wave Equation.- 4.6. Huyghens' Principle.- 4.7. The Plane Wave Method.- 4.8. The Solution of the Cauchy Problem in the Plane.- 4.9. Lacunae.- 4.10. The Cauchy Problem for a Strictly Hyperbolic System with Rapidly Oscillating Initial Data.- 4.11. Discontinuous Solutions of Hyperbolic Equations.- 4.12. Symmetric Hyperbolic Operators.- 4.13. The Mixed Boundary-Value Problem.- 4.14. The Method of Separation of Variables.- 5. Parabolic Equations.- 5.1. Definitions and Examples.- 5.2. The Maximum Principle and Its Consequences.- 5.3. Integral Estimates.- 5.4. Estimates in Hölder Spaces.- 5.5. The Regularity of Solutions of a Second-Order Parabolic Equation.- 5.6. Poisson's Formula.- 5.7. A Fundamental Solution of the Cauchy Problem for a Second-Order Equation with Variable Coefficients.- 5.8. Shilov-Parabolic Systems.- 5.9. Systems with Variable Coefficients.- 5.10. The Mixed Boundary-Value Problem.- 5.11. Stabilization of the Solutions of the Mixed Boundary-Value Problem and the Cauchy Problem.- 6. General Evolution Equations.- 6.1. The Cauchy Problem. The Hadamard and Petrovs…