This excellent introduction to hyperbolic differential equations is devoted to linear equations and symmetric systems, as well as conservation laws. It includes more than 100 exercises, along with "do-it-yourself" instructions for the proofs of many theorems.

The aim of this book is to present hyperbolic partial di?erential equations at an elementary level. In fact, the required mathematical background is only a third year university course on di?erential calculus for functions of several variables. No functional analysis knowledge is needed, nor any distribution theory (with the exception of shock waves mentioned below). k All solutions appearing in the text are piecewise classical C solutions. Beyond the simpli?cations it allows, there are several reasons for this choice: First, we believe that all main features of hyperbolic partial d- ferential equations (PDE) (well-posedness of the Cauchy problem, ?nite speed of propagation, domains of determination, energy inequalities, etc. ) canbedisplayedinthiscontext. Wehopethatthisbookitselfwillproveour belief. Second,allproperties,solutionformulas,andinequalitiesestablished here in the context of smooth functions can be readily extended to more general situations (solutions in Sobolev spaces or temperate distributions, etc. ) by simple standard procedures of functional analysis or distribution theory, which are external to the theory of hyperbolic equations: The deep mathematical content of the theorems is already to be found in the statements and proofs of this book. The last reason is this: We do hope that many readers of this book will eventually do research in the ?eld that seems to us the natural continuation of the subject: nonlinear hyp- bolic systems (compressible ?uids, general relativity theory, etc. ).

Contains over 100 exercises Do it yourself instructions included for theorems An elementary approach to partial differential equations presented, with minimal prerequisites Self-contained chapters, split into two main parts Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Serge Alinhac (1948) received his PhD from l'Université Paris-Sud XI (Orsay). After teaching at l'Université Paris Diderot VII and Purdue University, he has been a professor of mathematics at l'Université Paris-Sud XI (Orsay) since 1978. He is the author of Blowup for Nonlinear Hyperbolic Equations (Birkhäuser, 1995) and Pseudo-differential Operators and the NashMoser Theorem (with P. Gérard, American Mathematical Society, 2007). His primary areas of research are linear and nonlinear partial differential equations.

Inhalt
Vector Fields and Integral Curves.- Operators and Systems in the Plane.- Nonlinear First Order Equations.- Conservation Laws in One-Space Dimension.- The Wave Equation.- Energy Inequalities for the Wave Equation.- Variable Coefficient Wave Equations and Systems.