David Borthwick

This modern take on partial differential equations does not require knowledge beyond vector calculus and linear algebra. The author focuses on the most important classical partial differential equations, including conservation equations and their characteristics, the wave equation, the heat equation, function spaces, and Fourier series, drawing on tools from analysis only as they arise. Within each section the author creates a narrative that answers the five questions:

What is the scientific problem we are trying to understand? How do we model that with PDE?What techniques can we use to analyze the PDE?How do those techniques apply to this equation?What information or insight did we obtain by developing and analyzing the PDE?

The text stresses the interplay between modeling and mathematical analysis, providing a thorough source of problems and an inspiration for the development of methods.

This textbook offers a concise introduction to spectral theory, designed for newcomers to functional analysis. Curating the content carefully, the author builds to a proof of the spectral theorem in the early part of the book. Subsequent chapters illustrate a variety of application areas, exploring key examples in detail. Readers looking to delve further into specialized topics will find ample references to classic and recent literature. Beginning with a brief introduction to functional analysis, the text focuses on unbounded operators and separable Hilbert spaces as the essential tools needed for the subsequent theory. A thorough discussion of the concepts of spectrum and resolvent follows, leading to a complete proof of the spectral theorem for unbounded self-adjoint operators. Applications of spectral theory to differential operators comprise the remaining four chapters. These chapters introduce the Dirichlet Laplacian operator, Schrödinger operators, operators on graphs, and the spectral theory of Riemannian manifolds. Spectral Theory offers a uniquely accessible introduction to ideas that invite further study in any number of different directions. A background in real and complex analysis is assumed; the author presents the requisite tools from functional analysis within the text. This introductory treatment would suit a functional analysis course intended as a pathway to linear PDE theory. Independent later chapters allow for flexibility in selecting applications to suit specific interests within a one-semester course.