An Introduction to Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Elliptic Problems

This self-contained textbook provides the basic, abstract tools used in nonlinear analysis and their applications to semilinear elliptic boundary value problems. By first outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each method, this comprehensive text displays how various approaches can easily be applied to a range of model cases.

An Introduction to Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Elliptic Problems is divided into two parts: the first discusses key results such as the Banach contraction principle, a fixed point theorem for increasing operators, local and global inversion theory, Leray–Schauder degree, critical point theory, and bifurcation theory; the second part shows how these abstract results apply to Dirichlet elliptic boundary value problems. The exposition is driven by numerous prototype problems and exposes a variety of approaches to solving them.

Complete with a preliminary chapter, an appendix that includes further results on weak derivatives, and chapter-by-chapter exercises, this book is a practical text for an introductory course or seminar on nonlinear functional analysis.

Both authors are leading experts in this area of mathematics. Antonio Ambrosetti has been at the very forefront of research in this field for forty years, and several of the major topics from Parts 1 and 2 of the book are drawn from his research.