Topics in Critical Point Theory

Description

This book introduces the reader to powerful methods of critical point theory and details successful contemporary approaches to many problems, some of which had proved resistant to attack by older methods. Topics covered include Morse theory, critical groups, the minimax principle, various notions of linking, jumping nonlinearities and the Fucik spectrum in an abstract setting, sandwich pairs and the cohomological index. Applications to semilinear elliptic boundary value problems, p-Laplacian problems and anisotropic systems are given. Written for graduate students and research scientists, the book includes numerous examples and presents more recent developments in the subject to bring the reader up to date with the latest research.

Kanishka Perera is Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. Martin Schechter is Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Irvine.

'The authors have presented extremely powerful methods in critical point theory. It can be presumed that researchers in these subjects had been awaiting such an excellent source and here they have it. It is undoubtedly an excellent reference for research scientists in mathematics, physics and engineering.' Dhruba Adhikari, MAA Reviews