The calculus of variations

DOI10.1007/B97436MaRDI QIDQ1412413zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 25 November 2003

Published in Universitext (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/b97436

first variation Hamilton-Jacobi equation isoperimetric problems Noether's theorem second variation variational problems

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to calculus of variations and optimal control (49-01) Hamilton-Jacobi equations in mechanics (70H20)

Review text

This elementary textbook provides an introduction into the calculus of variations for functionals of the form \[ J(y)= \int^{x_2}_{x_1} f(x,y,y')\,dx, \] where \(x\) is a real parameter. The case of multiple integrals is mentioned only in a few examples, the occurrence of higher-order derivatives in the integrand \(f\) is briefly sketched. Chapter 1 contains the classical one-dimensional examples like the brachystochrone problem from mechanics or the problem of finding geodesics. Chapter 2 is devoted to the Euler-Lagrange equation. In Chapter 3 the case of vector-function is treated and the author explains how to include problems of higher-order. Chapter 4 is concerned with isoperimetric problems, i.e., to minimize \(J\) w.r.t. some integral constraint. As in Chapter 2 the author here starts with some finite-dimensional considerations. Chapter 5 addresses applications to eigenvalue problems, in Chapter 6 the reader is introduced into the concepts of holonomic and nonholonomic constraints, and in Chapter 7 problems with variable endpoints are treated. The Hamilton-Jacobi theory is the subject of Chapter 8, Noether's theorem is discussed in Chapter 9, and the final Chapter 10 studies the role of the second variation leading, for example, to the Legendre condition. In two appendices basic concepts from calculus and from functional analysis are briefly reviewed. In my opinion the title of the book is completely misleading: ``the calculus of variations is mainly concerned with the existence and regularity theory for multiple integrals, or to quote the authors' words from appendix B1: ``the calculus of variations is essentially optimization in spaces of functions, but the whole textbook does not comment on this, even the key notion of the ``direct method does not appear, and the terms ``minimizer and ``minimizing sequence are not contained in the index. Of course, one-dimensional problems are not only of historical interest, but a more substantial introduction even understandable for undergraduate students and presenting more links to advanced material, is provided in the book of \textit{J. L. Troutman} [``Variational calculus with elementary convexity (1983; Zbl 0523.49001)]. On p. 3 the author remarks that ``the field is far from dead and it continues to attract new researchers but the reader will get the impression that ``the calculus of variations is a collection of examples mixed with some formalism of Hamilton, Jacobi and Lagrange. Altogether the textbook should be summarized under the title ``One-dimensional variational problems: an elementary introduction and then parts of it might be useful as a lecture course for a mixed audience.

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