Home Page of Roland Steinbauer




Pseudodifferential Operators




Links

Selected topics in partial differential equations:

Pseudodifferential Operators and Microlocal Analysis

Class number: 250085
Class type: VO (lecture course)
Semester hours: 3
Time and place: Mon 13:15--14:45 2A310 (UZA 2); Thu 13:15--14:45 2A310 (UZA 2)
Start: 5.10.2009
News:
2009-10-23: The mastercopy of chapters 0 and 1 is available at my office door.
2009-10-16: There will be no lecture on Thu, Oct. 29.
2009-10-13: The monday lectures will have been shifted by ten minutes and will now start at 13:05 hence end at 14:35.

General introduction: The theory of pseudodifferential operators emerged in the mid 1960-ies through the work of Kohn and Nirenberg and has earlier roots in Fourier analysis and singular integrals. It was subsequently refined by a number of mathematicians, most notably by Lars Hörmander, and turned into one of the most esstential tools in PDE. More precisely, it allows a flexible way of applying Fourier techniques to the study of variable-coefficient operators and singularities of distributions. By the latter we mean the wave front set, a refinement of the notion of singular support, in the sense that also the the "bad frequency directions'' of the distribution are taken into account---the study of which is called microlocal analysis.

Applications of pseudodifferential operators are multitude. The most prominent and classical is the propagation of the wave front set for solutions of partial differential equations. However, over the years, in particular pseudodifferential calculus has turned into a general method that has successfully been applied in diverse fields of analysis, recently also in time frequency analysis.

For a (slightly) more technical introduction and an outline of the main aims of the course click here.

Contents: At least for the first three quarters of the course we will rather closely follow the book Elementary Introduction to the Theory of Pseudodifferential Operators by Xavier Saint Raymond (Studies in Mathematics, CRC-Press, Boca Raton, 1991). The main chapters will be:


Literature: A short commented list of books may be found here.

What you already should know: A solid background in analysis is indispensable. Further you need to be aquainted with distibution theory (approximately the contents of a 3-4 hours course, in particular tempered distributions, Fourier transform on S' and L^2, Sobolev spaces based on L^2--- there will be, however, a short and terse account on these topics (Ch. 1) to refresh your memory). You will also appreciate some basic background from topology, functional analysis (Lebesgue spaces) and PDE (classical equations).

Target audience: This is a specialized course designed for advanced students in the diploma or bachelor curriculum or Ph.D students and can be seen as a continuation of the course on distribution theory by Günther Hörmann and myself from summer term 2009. It also may serve as preparation for a diploma thesis in analysis, in particular with the research group DiANA.

Remark: The course will normally be held 4 hours a week but suspended some weeks on (duly) announcement.

Position within curriculum: Diplomstudium Mathematik, 2. Abschnitt, Studienschwerpunkt Analysis and Masterstudium Mathematik, Vertiefungslehrveranstaltungen im Studienschwerpunkt Analysis (MANV)

Exams: oral; by arrangement.