Open Problems in Mathematics

System and Control theory is one of the most exciting areas of contemporary engineering mathematics. From the analysis of Watt's steam engine governor - which enabled the Industrial Revolution - to the design of controllers for consumer items, chemical plants and modern aircraft, the area has always drawn from a broad range of tools. It has provided many challenges and possibilities for interaction between engineering and established areas of 'pure' and 'applied' mathematics. This impressive volume collects a discussion of more than fifty open problems which touch upon a variety of subfields, including: chaotic observers, nonlinear local controlability, discrete event and hybrid systems, neural network learning, matrix inequalities, Lyapunov exponents, and many other issues. Proposed and explained by leading researchers, they are offered with the intention of generating further work, as well as inspiration for many other similar problems which may naturally arise from them. With extensive references, this book will be a useful reference source - as well as an excellent addendum to the textbooks in the area.

This is an collection of some easily-formulated problems that remain open in the study of the geometry and analysis of Banach spaces. Assuming the reader has a working familiarity with the basic results of Banach space theory, the authors focus on concepts of basic linear geometry, convexity, approximation, optimization, differentiability, renormings, weak compact generating, Schauder bases and biorthogonal systems, fixed points, topology and nonlinear geometry.

This volume grew from a discussion by the editors on the difficulty of finding good thesis problems for graduate students in topology. Although at any given time we each had our own favorite problems, we acknowledged the need to offer students a wider selection from which to choose a topic peculiar to their interests.

This second volume in a two-volume series provides an extensive collection of conjectures and open problems in graph theory. It is designed for both graduate students and established researchers in discrete mathematics who are searching for research ideas and references. Each chapter provides more than a simple collection of results on a particular topic; it captures the reader’s interest with techniques that worked and failed in attempting to solve particular conjectures.

This is the first in a series of volumes, which provide an extensive overview of conjectures and open problems in graph theory. The readership of each volume is geared toward graduate students who may be searching for research ideas. However, the well-established mathematician will find the overall exposition engaging and enlightening. Each chapter, presented in a story-telling style, includes more than a simple collection of results on a particular topic.