Multiscale Potential Theory

This self-contained text/reference provides a basic foundation for practitioners, researchers, and students interested in any of the diverse areas of multiscale (geo)potential theory. New mathematical methods are developed enabling the gravitational potential of a planetary body to be modeled using a continuous flow of observations from land or satellite devices. Harmonic wavelets methods are introduced, as well as fast computational schemes and various numerical test examples. Presented are multiscale approaches for numerous geoscientific problems, including geoidal determination, magnetic field reconstruction, deformation analysis, and density variation modelling With exercises at the end of each chapter, the book may be used as a textbook for graduate-level courses in geomathematics, applied mathematics, and geophysics. The work is also an up-to-date reference text for geoscientists, applied mathematicians, and engineers.

This self-contained text/reference provides a basic foundation for practitioners, researchers, and students interested in any of the diverse areas of multiscale (geo)potential theory. New mathematical methods are developed enabling the gravitational potential of a planetary body to be modeled using a continuous flow of observations from land or satellite devices. Harmonic wavelets methods are introduced, as well as fast computational schemes and various numerical test examples. Presented are multiscale approaches for numerous geoscientific problems, including geoidal determination, magnetic field reconstruction, deformation analysis, and density variation modelling With exercises at the end of each chapter, the book may be used as a textbook for graduate-level courses in geomathematics, applied mathematics, and geophysics. The work is also an up-to-date reference text for geoscientists, applied mathematicians, and engineers.

The present volume gives a systematic treatment of potential functions. It takes its origin in two courses, one elementary and one advanced, which the author has given at intervals during the last ten years, and has a two-fold purpose: first, to serve as an introduction for students whose attainments in the Calculus include some knowledge of partial derivatives and multiple and line integrals; and secondly, to provide the reader with the fundamentals of the subject, so that he may proceed immediately to the applications, or to the periodical literature of the day. It is inherent in the nature of the subject that physical intuition and illustration be appealed to freely, and this has been done. However, in order that the book may present sound ideals to the student, and also serve the mathematician, both for purposes of reference and as a basis for further developments, the proofs have been given by rigorous methods. This has led, at a number of points, to results either not found elsewhere, or not readily accessible. Thus, Chapter IV contains a proof for the general regular region of the divergence theorem (Gauss', or Green's theorem) on the reduction of volume to surface integrals. The treatment of the fundamental existence theorems in Chapter XI by means of integral equations meets squarely the difficulties incident to the discontinuity of the kernel, and the same chapter gives an account of the most recent developments with respect to the Dirichlet problem.

The first part of these lecture notes is an introduction to potential theory to prepare the reader for later parts, which can be used as the basis for a series of advanced lectures/seminars on potential theory/harmonic analysis. Topics covered in the book include minimal thinness, quasiadditivity of capacity, applications of singular integrals to potential theory, L(p)-capacity theory, fine limits of the Nagel-Stein boundary limit theorem and integrability of superharmonic functions. The notes are written for an audience familiar with the theory of integration, distributions and basic functional analysis.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The book systematically develops the nonlinear potential theory connected with the weighted Sobolev spaces, where the weight usually belongs to Muckenhoupt's class of Ap weights. These spaces occur as solutions spaces for degenerate elliptic partial differential equations. The Sobolev space theory covers results concerning approximation, extension, and interpolation, Sobolev and Poincaré inequalities, Maz'ya type embedding theorems, and isoperimetric inequalities. In the chapter devoted to potential theory, several weighted capacities are investigated. Moreover, "Kellogg lemmas" are established for various concepts of thinness. Applications of potential theory to weighted Sobolev spaces include quasi continuity of Sobolev functions, Poincaré inequalities, and spectral synthesis theorems.

This volume explores multiscale methods as applied to various areas of physics and to the relative developments in mathematics. In the last few years, multiscale methods have lead to spectacular progress in our understanding of complex physical systems and have stimulated the development of very refined mathematical techniques. At the same time on the experimental side, equally spectacular progress has been made in developing experimental machinery and techniques to test the foundations of quantum mechanics.