Department of Applied Mathematics University of Leeds, Leeds ls2 9jt, UK

UK Nonlinear News Book Review

Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers

Lokenath Debnath

Nonlinear partial differential equations is an old and vast area of research. There is a big and well developed theory as well as a huge variety of applications. It seems to be impossible to embrace this subject in a single monograph. The book of Lokenath Debnath is a quite successful attempt. It is a second edition of the book, considerably extended and revised. The author is trying to balance between the deep and rigorous theory and a variety of approaches and often seminal examples. To examples he gives the leading, more than just an illustrative, role. Exact Definitions and Theorems are not emphasised in the text. For Applied Science and Engineering such kind of approach seems to be rather adequate. The book could serve as a good selection of choices for a kernel of a graduate or even undergraduate module in Applied Mathematics or Engineering Sciences. For more fundamental courses the book is also useful, since it contains a lot of motivations and well elaborated exercises. I doubt that the book could serve as a good guide for references, at least in the area of Soliton Theory and Theory of Integrable equations. The choices made by the author are often very subjective, while a number of most influential and original contributions are omitted. Overall, it is a useful book for teaching, a rich source of examples and I am happy to have it on a shelf of my library.

Reviewed by A.V.Mikhailov, University of Leeds.

UK Nonlinear News would like to thank Birkhäuser for providing a copy of this volume for review.