Parametrized Measures and Variational Principles

Parametrized Measures and Variational Principles
Author: Pablo Pedregal
Publisher: Birkhäuser
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3034888864

Weak convergence is a basic tool of modern nonlinear analysis because it enjoys the same compactness properties that finite dimensional spaces do: basically, bounded sequences are weak relatively compact sets. Nonetheless, weak conver gence does not behave as one would desire with respect to nonlinear functionals and operations. This difficulty is what makes nonlinear analysis much harder than would normally be expected. Parametrized measures is a device to under stand weak convergence and its behavior with respect to nonlinear functionals. Under suitable hypotheses, it yields a way of representing through integrals weak limits of compositions with nonlinear functions. It is particularly helpful in comprehending oscillatory phenomena and in keeping track of how oscilla tions change when a nonlinear functional is applied. Weak convergence also plays a fundamental role in the modern treatment of the calculus of variations, again because uniform bounds in norm for se quences allow to have weak convergent subsequences. In order to achieve the existence of minimizers for a particular functional, the property of weak lower semicontinuity should be established first. This is the crucial and most delicate step in the so-called direct method of the calculus of variations. A fairly large amount of work has been devoted to determine under what assumptions we can have this lower semicontinuity with respect to weak topologies for nonlin ear functionals in the form of integrals. The conclusion of all this work is that some type of convexity, understood in a broader sense, is usually involved.

Relaxation in Optimization Theory and Variational Calculus

Relaxation in Optimization Theory and Variational Calculus
Author: Tomáš Roubíček
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 602
Release: 2020-11-09
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3110590859

The relaxation method has enjoyed an intensive development during many decades and this new edition of this comprehensive text reflects in particular the main achievements in the past 20 years. Moreover, many further improvements and extensions are included, both in the direction of optimal control and optimal design as well as in numerics and applications in materials science, along with an updated treatment of the abstract parts of the theory.

Young Measures and Compactness in Measure Spaces

Young Measures and Compactness in Measure Spaces
Author: Liviu C. Florescu
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2012-05-29
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3110280515

In recent years, technological progress created a great need for complex mathematical models. Many practical problems can be formulated using optimization theory and they hope to obtain an optimal solution. In most cases, such optimal solution can not be found. So, non-convex optimization problems (arising, e.g., in variational calculus, optimal control, nonlinear evolutions equations) may not possess a classical minimizer because the minimizing sequences have typically rapid oscillations. This behavior requires a relaxation of notion of solution for such problems; often we can obtain such a relaxation by means of Young measures. This monograph is a self-contained book which gathers all theoretical aspects related to the defining of Young measures (measurability, disintegration, stable convergence, compactness), a book which is also a useful tool for those interested in theoretical foundations of the measure theory. It provides a complete set of classical and recent compactness results in measure and function spaces. The book is organized in three chapters: The first chapter covers background material on measure theory in abstract frame. In the second chapter the measure theory on topological spaces is presented. Compactness results from the first two chapters are used to study Young measures in the third chapter. All results are accompanied by full demonstrations and for many of these results different proofs are given. All statements are fully justified and proved.

Variational Views in Mechanics

Variational Views in Mechanics
Author: Paolo Maria Mariano
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2022-02-08
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3030900517

This volume provides a timely survey of interactions between the calculus of variations and theoretical and applied mechanics. Chapters have been significantly expanded since preliminary versions appeared in a special issue of the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications (184(1), 2020) on “Calculus of Variations in Mechanics and Related Fields”. The variety of topics covered offers researchers an overview of problems in mechanics that can be analyzed with variational techniques, making this a valuable reference for researchers in the field. It also presents ideas for possible future areas of research, showing how the mastery of these foundational mathematical techniques can be used for many exciting applications. Specific topics covered include: Topology optimization Identification of material properties Optimal control Plastic flows Gradient polyconvexity Obstacle problems Quasi-monotonicity Variational Views in Mechanics will appeal to researchers in mathematics, solid-states physics, and mechanical, civil, and materials engineering.

Optimal Design through the Sub-Relaxation Method

Optimal Design through the Sub-Relaxation Method
Author: Pablo Pedregal
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2016-09-01
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3319411594

This book provides a comprehensive guide to analyzing and solving optimal design problems in continuous media by means of the so-called sub-relaxation method. Though the underlying ideas are borrowed from other, more classical approaches, here they are used and organized in a novel way, yielding a distinct perspective on how to approach this kind of optimization problems. Starting with a discussion of the background motivation, the book broadly explains the sub-relaxation method in general terms, helping readers to grasp, from the very beginning, the driving idea and where the text is heading. In addition to the analytical content of the method, it examines practical issues like optimality and numerical approximation. Though the primary focus is on the development of the method for the conductivity context, the book’s final two chapters explore several extensions of the method to other problems, as well as formal proofs. The text can be used for a graduate course in optimal design, even if the method would require some familiarity with the main analytical issues associated with this type of problems. This can be addressed with the help of the provided bibliography.

Elliptic and Parabolic Problems

Elliptic and Parabolic Problems
Author: Catherine Bandle
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2006-01-17
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3764373849

Haim Brezis has made significant contributions in the fields of partial differential equations and functional analysis, and this volume collects contributions by his former students and collaborators in honor of his 60th anniversary at a conference in Gaeta. It presents new developments in the theory of partial differential equations with emphasis on elliptic and parabolic problems.

A Variational Approach to Optimal Control of ODEs

A Variational Approach to Optimal Control of ODEs
Author: Pablo Pedregal
Publisher: SIAM
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2022-07-26
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1611977118

This self-contained book presents in a unified, systematic way the basic principles of optimal control governed by ODEs. Using a variational perspective, the author incorporates important restrictions like constraints for control and state, as well as the state system itself, into the equivalent variational reformulation of the problem. The fundamental issues of existence of optimal solutions, optimality conditions, and numerical approximation are then examined from this variational viewpoint. Inside, readers will find a unified approach to all the basic issues of optimal control, academic and real-world examples testing the book’s variational approach, and a rigorous treatment stressing ideas and arguments rather than the underlying mathematical formalism. A Variational Approach to Optimal Control of ODEs is mainly for applied analysts, applied mathematicians, and control engineers, but will also be helpful to other scientists and engineers who want to understand the basic principles of optimal control governed by ODEs. It requires no prerequisites in variational problems or expertise in numerical approximation. It can be used for a first course in optimal control.

Robust Optimization-Directed Design

Robust Optimization-Directed Design
Author: Andrew J. Kurdila
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2006-06-04
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0387286543

Robust design—that is, managing design uncertainties such as model uncertainty or parametric uncertainty—is the often unpleasant issue crucial in much multidisciplinary optimal design work. Recently, there has been enormous practical interest in strategies for applying optimization tools to the development of robust solutions and designs in several areas, including aerodynamics, the integration of sensing (e.g., laser radars, vision-based systems, and millimeter-wave radars) and control, cooperative control with poorly modeled uncertainty, cascading failures in military and civilian applications, multi-mode seekers/sensor fusion, and data association problems and tracking systems. The contributions to this book explore these different strategies. The expression "optimization-directed” in this book’s title is meant to suggest that the focus is not agonizing over whether optimization strategies identify a true global optimum, but rather whether these strategies make significant design improvements.

Functional Analysis, Calculus of Variations and Numerical Methods for Models in Physics and Engineering

Functional Analysis, Calculus of Variations and Numerical Methods for Models in Physics and Engineering
Author: Fabio Silva Botelho
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 576
Release: 2020-11-02
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1000205878

The book discusses basic concepts of functional analysis, measure and integration theory, calculus of variations and duality and its applications to variational problems of non-convex nature, such as the Ginzburg-Landau system in superconductivity, shape optimization models, dual variational formulations for micro-magnetism and others. Numerical Methods for such and similar problems, such as models in flight mechanics and the Navier-Stokes system in fluid mechanics have been developed through the generalized method of lines, including their matrix finite dimensional approximations. It concludes with a review of recent research on Riemannian geometry applied to Quantum Mechanics and Relativity. The book will be of interest to applied mathematicians and graduate students in applied mathematics. Physicists, engineers and researchers in related fields will also find the book useful in providing a mathematical background applicable to their respective professional areas.

Young Measures on Topological Spaces

Young Measures on Topological Spaces
Author: Charles Castaing
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2006-04-11
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1402019645

Young measures are now a widely used tool in the Calculus of Variations, in Control Theory, in Probability Theory and other fields. They are known under different names such as "relaxed controls," "fuzzy random variables" and many other names. This monograph provides a unified presentation of the theory, along with new results and applications in various fields. It can serve as a reference on the subject. Young measures are presented in a general setting which includes finite and for the first time infinite dimensional spaces: the fields of applications of Young measures (Control Theory, Calculus of Variations, Probability Theory...) are often concerned with problems in infinite dimensional settings. The theory of Young measures is now well understood in a finite dimensional setting, but open problems remain in the infinite dimensional case. We provide several new results in the general frame, which are new even in the finite dimensional setting, such as characterizations of convergence in measure of Young measures (Chapter 3) and compactness criteria (Chapter 4).These results are established under a different form (and with less details and developments) in recent papers by the same authors. We also provide new applications to Visintin and Reshetnyak type theorems (Chapters 6 and 8), existence of solutions to differential inclusions (Chapter 7), dynamical programming (Chapter 8) and the Central Limit Theorem in locally convex spaces (Chapter 9).