Nonlinear methods in Riemannian and Kählerian geometry. Delivered at the German Mathematical Society Seminar in Düsseldorf in June, 1986 (Q4039845)

This book consists of notes on partial differential equations in geometry. The first chapter contains general background material in complex geometry, Riemannian geometry and Yang-Mills theory and the second reviews techniques from analysis. The last three chapters deal with three specific problems, in each case emphasizing the ``heat equation'' method for solving nonlinear elliptic equations. The problems considered are the linear heat equation associated to the Laplacian on differential forms, leading to a proof of the Hodge theorem, and two nonlinear analogues: the equations for harmonic mappings into spaces of negative curvature (following Eells, Sampson and Hartman) and the Hermitian Yang-Mills equations. Finally there is a chapter on geometrical applications of harmonic maps. The book is written in a succinct and informal style but contains a lot of interesting material. It should make a good complement to the book of \textit{T. Aubin} [Nonlinear analysis on manifolds, Monge-Ampère equations (Springer 1982; Zbl 0512.53044)] and the monograph of \textit{J. L. Kazdan} [Prescribing the curvature of a Riemannian manifold (C. B. M. S. Reg. Conf. Ser. Math. 57) (1985; Zbl 0561.53048)].