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This book reflects a significant part of authors' research activity dur ing the last ten years. The present monograph is constructed on the results obtained by the authors through their direct cooperation or due to the authors separately or in cooperation with other mathematicians. All these results fit in a unitary scheme giving the structure of this work. The book is mainly addressed to researchers and scholars in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Mechanics, Physics and Engineering. We are greatly indebted to Viorica Venera Motreanu for the careful reading of the manuscript and helpful comments on important issues. We are also grateful to our Editors of Kluwer Academic Publishers for their professional assistance. Our deepest thanks go to our numerous scientific collaborators and friends, whose work was so important for us. D. Motreanu and V. Radulescu IX Introduction The present monograph is based on original results obtained by the authors in the last decade. This book provides a comprehensive expo sition of some modern topics in nonlinear analysis with applications to the study of several classes of boundary value problems. Our framework includes multivalued elliptic problems with discontinuities, variational inequalities, hemivariational inequalities and evolution problems. The treatment relies on variational methods, monotonicity principles, topo logical arguments and optimization techniques. Excepting Sections 1 and 3 in Chapter 1 and Sections 1 and 3 in Chapter 2, the material is new in comparison with any other book, representing research topics where the authors contributed. The outline of our work is the following.

This well-thought-out book covers the fundamentals of nonlinear analysis, with a particular focus on variational methods and their applications. Starting from preliminaries in functional analysis, it expands in several directions such as Banach spaces, fixed point theory, nonsmooth analysis, minimax theory, variational calculus and inequalities, critical point theory, monotone, maximal monotone and pseudomonotone operators, and evolution problems.

The book analyzes the existence of solitons, namely of finite energy solutions of field equations which exhibit stability properties. The book is divided in two parts. In the first part, the authors give an abstract definition of solitary wave and soliton and we develop an abstract existence theory for hylomorphic solitons, namely for those solitons which minimize the energy for a given charge. In the second part, the authors apply this theory to prove the existence of hylomorphic solitons for some classes of field equations (nonlinear Klein-Gordon-Maxwell equations, nonlinear Schrödinger-Maxwell equations, nonlinear beam equation,..). The abstract theory is sufficiently flexible to be applied to other situations, like the existence of vortices. The books is addressed to Mathematicians and Physicists.

In this book, the basic methods of nonlinear analysis are emphasized and illustrated in simple examples. Every considered method is motivated, explained in a general form but in the simplest possible abstract framework. Its applications are shown, particularly to boundary value problems for elementary ordinary or partial differential equations. The text is organized in two levels: a self-contained basic and, organized in appendices, an advanced level for the more experienced reader. Exercises are an organic part of the exposition and accompany the reader throughout the book.

This book offers a systematic presentation of up-to-date material scattered throughout the literature from the methodology point of view. It reviews the basic theories and methods, with many interesting problems in partial and ordinary differential equations, differential geometry and mathematical physics as applications, and provides the necessary preparation for almost all important aspects in contemporary studies. All methods are illustrated by carefully chosen examples from mechanics, physics, engineering and geometry.

In the last forty years, nonlinear analysis has been broadly and rapidly developed. Lectures presented in the International Conference on Variational Methods at the Chern Institute of Mathematics in Tianjin of May 2009 reflect this development from different angles. This volume contains articles based on lectures in the following areas of nonlinear analysis: critical point theory, Hamiltonian dynamics, partial differential equations and systems, KAM theory, bifurcation theory, symplectic geometry, geometrical analysis, and celestial mechanics. Combinations of topological, analytical (especially variational), geometrical, and algebraic methods in these researches play important roles. In this proceedings, introductory materials on new theories and surveys on traditional topics are also given. Further perspectives and open problems on hopeful research topics in related areas are described and proposed. Researchers, graduate and postgraduate students from a wide range of areas in mathematics and physics will find contents in this proceedings are helpful.

In the last forty years, nonlinear analysis has been broadly and rapidly developed. Lectures presented in the International Conference on Variational Methods at the Chern Institute of Mathematics in Tianjin of May 2009 reflect this development from different angles. This volume contains articles based on lectures in the following areas of nonlinear analysis: critical point theory, Hamiltonian dynamics, partial differential equations and systems, KAM theory, bifurcation theory, symplectic geometry, geometrical analysis, and celestial mechanics. Combinations of topological, analytical (especially variational), geometrical, and algebraic methods in these researches play important roles. In this proceedings, introductory materials on new theories and surveys on traditional topics are also given. Further perspectives and open problems on hopeful research topics in related areas are described and proposed. Researchers, graduate and postgraduate students from a wide range of areas in mathematics and physics will find contents in this proceedings are helpful.

It would be hopeless to attempt to give a complete account of the history of the calculus of variations. The interest of Greek philosophers in isoperimetric problems underscores the importance of "optimal form" in ancient cultures, see Hildebrandt-Tromba [1] for a beautiful treatise of this subject. While variatio nal problems thus are part of our classical cultural heritage, the first modern treatment of a variational problem is attributed to Fermat (see Goldstine [1; p.l]). Postulating that light follows a path of least possible time, in 1662 Fer mat was able to derive the laws of refraction, thereby using methods which may already be termed analytic. With the development of the Calculus by Newton and Leibniz, the basis was laid for a more systematic development of the calculus of variations. The brothers Johann and Jakob Bernoulli and Johann's student Leonhard Euler, all from the city of Basel in Switzerland, were to become the "founding fathers" (Hildebrandt-Tromba [1; p.21]) of this new discipline. In 1743 Euler [1] sub mitted "A method for finding curves enjoying certain maximum or minimum properties", published 1744, the first textbook on the calculus of variations.