Applied Complex Analysis

Complex analysis is one of the most attractive of all the core topics in an undergraduate mathematics course. Its importance to applications means that it can be studied both from a very pure perspective and a very applied perspective. This book takes account of these varying needs and backgrounds and provides a self-study text for students in mathematics, science and engineering. Beginning with a summary of what the student needs to know at the outset, it covers all the topics likely to feature in a first course in the subject, including: complex numbers, differentiation, integration, Cauchy's theorem, and its consequences, Laurent series and the residue theorem, applications of contour integration, conformal mappings, and harmonic functions. A brief final chapter explains the Riemann hypothesis, the most celebrated of all the unsolved problems in mathematics, and ends with a short descriptive account of iteration, Julia sets and the Mandelbrot set. Clear and careful explanations are backed up with worked examples and more than 100 exercises, for which full solutions are provided. This textbook is intended for a one semester course in complex analysis for upper level undergraduates in mathematics. Applications, primary motivations for this text, are presented hand-in-hand with theory enabling this text to serve well in courses for students in engineering or applied sciences. The overall aim in designing this text is to accommodate students of different mathematical backgrounds and to achieve a balance between presentations of rigorous mathematical proofs and applications. Chapter topics include complex numbers and functions, analytic functions, complex integration, complex series, residues: applications and theory, conformal mapping, partial differential equations: methods and applications, transform methods, and partial differential equations in polar and spherical coordinates. The text is adapted to enable maximum flexibility to instructors and to students who may also choose to progress through the material outside of coursework. Detailed examples may be covered in one course, giving the instructor the option to choose those that are best suited for discussion.