Discusses problems in the distribution theory of probability.

Approach your problems from the right end It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is and begin with the answers. Then one day, that they can't see the problem. perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Father 'The Hermit Clad in Crane Feathers' in R Brown 'The point of a Pin'. van Gulik's The Chinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the "tree" of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of sophistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging subdisciplines as "experimental mathematics", "CFD", "completely integrable systems", "chaos, synergetics and large-scale order", which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics.

The contributions collected in this volume exhibit the increasingly wide spectrum of applications of abstract order theory in analysis and show the possibilities of order-theoretical argumentation. The following areas are discussed: potential theory, partial differential operators of second order, Schrodinger operators, theory of convexity, one-parameter semigroups, Lie algebras, Markov processes, operator-algebras, noncommutative integration and geometry of Banach spaces.

The book is devoted to the theory of gradient flows in the general framework of metric spaces, and in the more specific setting of the space of probability measures, which provide a surprising link between optimal transportation theory and many evolutionary PDE's related to (non)linear diffusion. Particular emphasis is given to the convergence of the implicit time discretization method and to the error estimates for this discretization, extending the well established theory in Hilbert spaces. The book is split in two main parts that can be read independently of each other.

This book’s title, Nonsmooth Mechanics and Analysis, refers to a major domain of mechanics, particularly those initiated by the works of Jean Jacques Moreau. Nonsmooth mechanics concerns mechanical situations with possible nondifferentiable relationships, eventually discontinuous, as unilateral contact, dry friction, collisions, plasticity, damage, and phase transition. The basis of the approach consists in dealing with such problems without resorting to any regularization process. Indeed, the nonsmoothness is due to simplified mechanical modeling; a more sophisticated model would require too large a number of variables, and sometimes the mechanical information is not available via experimental investigations. Therefore, the mathematical formulation becomes nonsmooth; regularizing would only be a trick of arithmetic without any physical justification. Nonsmooth analysis was developed, especially in Montpellier, to provide specific theoretical and numerical tools to deal with nonsmoothness. It is important not only in mechanics but also in physics, robotics, and economics. Audience This book is intended for researchers in mathematics and mechanics.

This volume collects selected papers from the 7th High Dimensional Probability meeting held at the Institut d'Études Scientifiques de Cargèse (IESC) in Corsica, France. High Dimensional Probability (HDP) is an area of mathematics that includes the study of probability distributions and limit theorems in infinite-dimensional spaces such as Hilbert spaces and Banach spaces. The most remarkable feature of this area is that it has resulted in the creation of powerful new tools and perspectives, whose range of application has led to interactions with other subfields of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. These include random matrices, nonparametric statistics, empirical processes, statistical learning theory, concentration of measure phenomena, strong and weak approximations, functional estimation, combinatorial optimization, and random graphs. The contributions in this volume show that HDP theory continues to thrive and develop new tools, methods, techniques and perspectives to analyze random phenomena.

Recently much attention has been devoted to the optimization of transportation networks in a given geographic area. One assumes the distributions of population and of services/workplaces (i.e. the network's sources and sinks) are known, as well as the costs of movement with/without the network, and the cost of constructing/maintaining it. Both the long-term optimization and the short-term, "who goes where," optimization are considered. These models can also be adapted for the optimization of other types of networks, such as telecommunications, pipeline or drainage networks. In the monograph we study the most general problem settings, namely, when neither the shape nor even the topology of the network to be constructed is known a priori.

The topic covered in this book is the study of metric and other close characteristics of different spaces and classes of random variables and the application of the entropy method to the investigation of properties of stochastic processes whose values, or increments, belong to given spaces. The following processes appear in detail: pre-Gaussian processes, shot noise processes representable as integrals over processes with independent increments, quadratically Gaussian processes, and, in particular, correlogram-type estimates of the correlation function of a stationary Gaussian process, jointly strictly sub-Gaussian processes, etc. The book consists of eight chapters divided into four parts: The first part deals with classes of random variables and their metric characteristics. The second part presents properties of stochastic processes "imbedded" into a space of random variables discussed in the first part. The third part considers applications of the general theory. The fourth part outlines the necessary auxiliary material. Problems and solutions presented show the intrinsic relation existing between probability methods, analytic methods, and functional methods in the theory of stochastic processes. The concluding sections, "Comments" and "References", gives references to the literature used by the authors in writing the book.

This book provides a thorough exposition of the main concepts and results related to various types of convergence of measures arising in measure theory, probability theory, functional analysis, partial differential equations, mathematical physics, and other theoretical and applied fields. Particular attention is given to weak convergence of measures. The principal material is oriented toward a broad circle of readers dealing with convergence in distribution of random variables and weak convergence of measures. The book contains the necessary background from measure theory and functional analysis. Large complementary sections aimed at researchers present the most important recent achievements. More than 100 exercises (ranging from easy introductory exercises to rather difficult problems for experienced readers) are given with hints, solutions, or references. Historic and bibliographic comments are included. The target readership includes mathematicians and physicists whose research is related to probability theory, mathematical statistics, functional analysis, and mathematical physics.

The 2-volume book is an updated, reorganized and considerably enlarged version of the previous edition of the Research Problem Book in Analysis (LNM 1043), a collection familiar to many analysts, that has sparked off much research. This new edition, created in a joint effort by a large team of analysts, is, like its predecessor, a collection of unsolved problems of modern analysis designed as informally written mini-articles, each containing not only a statement of a problem but also historical and methodological comments, motivation, conjectures and discussion of possible connections, of plausible approaches as well as a list of references. There are now 342 of these mini- articles, almost twice as many as in the previous edition, despite the fact that a good deal of them have been solved!