Calculus of Variations

The calculus of variations has a long history of interaction with other branches of mathematics such as geometry and differential equations, and with physics, particularly mechanics. More recently, the calculus of variations has found applications in other fields such as economics and electrical engineering. Much of the mathematics underlying control theory, for instance, can be regarded as part of the calculus of variations.

This publication is a Special Issue of the journal Axioms entitled “Calculus of Variations, Optimal Control and Mathematical Biology: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Delfim F. M. Torres on the Occasion of His 50th birthday”. This Special Issue is dedicated to Professor Delfim F. M. Torres on his 50th birthday, as a recognition of his significant contributions to Mathematics, in particular regarding the calculus of variations, optimal control, and mathematical biology. Professor Torres is a distinguished University Professor, a highly cited researcher in Mathematics (in the top 1% for Mathematics in the Web of Science in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019), and a lifetime member of the American Mathematical Society.

The aim of the present book is to give a systematic treatment of the inverse problem of the calculus of variations, i.e. how to recognize whether a system of differential equations can be treated as a system for extremals of a variational functional (the Euler-Lagrange equations), using contemporary geometric methods. Selected applications in geometry, physics, optimal control, and general relativity are also considered. The book includes the following chapters: - Helmholtz conditions and the method of controlled Lagrangians (Bloch, Krupka, Zenkov) - The Sonin-Douglas's problem (Krupka) - Inverse variational problem and symmetry in action: The Ostrogradskyj relativistic third order dynamics (Matsyuk.) - Source forms and their variational completion (Voicu) - First-order variational sequences and the inverse problem of the calculus of variations (Urban, Volna) - The inverse problem of the calculus of variations on Grassmann fibrations (Urban).

This monograph is a revised and expanded version of lecture notes from a class given at Harvard University, Nankai University, and the Graduate School of the Academia Sinica during the academic year 1981-82. The objective was to present the formalism, together with numerous illustrative examples, of the calculus of variations for functionals whose domain of definition consists of integral manifolds of an exterior differential system. This includes as a special case the Lagrange problem of analyzing classical functionals with arbitrary (i.e., nonholonomic as well as holonomic) constraints. A secondary objective was to illustrate in practice some aspects of the theory of exterior differential systems. In fact, even though the calculus of variations is a venerable subject about which it is hard to say something new, (l) we feel that utilizing techniques from exterior differential systems such as Cauchy characteristics, the derived flag, and prolongation allows a systematic treatment of the subject in greater generality than customary and sheds new light on even the classical Lagrange problem.

This brief presents a general unifying perspective on the fractional calculus. It brings together results of several recent approaches in generalizing the least action principle and the Euler–Lagrange equations to include fractional derivatives.

This volume provides the texts of lectures given by L. Ambrosio, L. Caffarelli, M. Crandall, L.C. Evans, N. Fusco at the Summer course held in Cetraro (Italy) in 2005. These are introductory reports on current research by world leaders in the fields of calculus of variations and partial differential equations. The topics discussed are transport equations for nonsmooth vector fields, homogenization, viscosity methods for the infinite Laplacian, weak KAM theory and geometrical aspects of symmetrization. A historical overview of all CIME courses on the calculus of variations and partial differential equations is contributed by Elvira Mascolo.

This book is devoted to the recent progress on the turnpike theory. The turnpike property was discovered by Paul A. Samuelson, who applied it to problems in mathematical economics in 1949. These properties were studied for optimal trajectories of models of economic dynamics determined by convex processes. In this monograph the author, a leading expert in modern turnpike theory, presents a number of results concerning the turnpike properties in the calculus of variations and optimal control which were obtained in the last ten years. These results show that the turnpike properties form a general phenomenon which holds for various classes of variational problems and optimal control problems. The book should help to correct the misapprehension that turnpike properties are only special features of some narrow classes of convex problems of mathematical economics.

The link between Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations has always been strong, because variational problems produce, via their Euler-Lagrange equation, a differential equation and, conversely, a differential equation can often be studied by variational methods. At the summer school in Pisa in September 1996, Luigi Ambrosio and Norman Dancer each gave a course on a classical topic (the geometric problem of evolution of a surface by mean curvature, and degree theory with applications to pde's resp.).