Filippo Santambrogio

This book provides an introduction to the broad topic of the calculus of variations. It addresses the most natural questions on variational problems and the mathematical complexities they present. Beginning with the scientific modeling that motivates the subject, the book then tackles mathematical questions such as the existence and uniqueness of solutions, their characterization in terms of partial differential equations, and their regularity. It includes both classical and recent results on one-dimensional variational problems, as well as the adaptation to the multi-dimensional case. Here, convexity plays an important role in establishing semi-continuity results and connections with techniques from optimization, and convex duality is even used to produce regularity results. This is then followed by the more classical Hölder regularity theory for elliptic PDEs and some geometric variational problems on sets, including the isoperimetric inequality andthe Steiner tree problem. The book concludes with a chapter on the limits of sequences of variational problems, expressed in terms of G-convergence. While primarily designed for master's-level and advanced courses, this textbook, based on its author's instructional experience, also offers original insights that may be of interest to PhD students and researchers. A foundational understanding of measure theory and functional analysis is required, but all the essential concepts are reiterated throughout the book using special memo-boxes.

This volume provides an introduction to the theory of Mean Field Games, suggested by J.-M. Lasry and P.-L. Lions in 2006 as a mean-field model for Nash equilibria in the strategic interaction of a large number of agents. Besides giving an accessible presentation of the main features of mean-field game theory, the volume offers an overview of recent developments which explore several important directions: from partial differential equations to stochastic analysis, from the calculus of variations to modeling and aspects related to numerical methods. Arising from the CIME Summer School "Mean Field Games" held in Cetraro in 2019, this book collects together lecture notes prepared by Y. Achdou (with M. Laurière), P. Cardaliaguet, F. Delarue, A. Porretta and F. Santambrogio. These notes will be valuable for researchers and advanced graduate students who wish to approach this theory and explore its connections with several different fields in mathematics.

This monograph presents a rigorous mathematical introduction to optimal transport as a variational problem, its use in modeling various phenomena, and its connections with partial differential equations. Its main goal is to provide the reader with the techniques necessary to understand the current research in optimal transport and the tools which are most useful for its applications. Full proofs are used to illustrate mathematical concepts and each chapter includes a section that discusses applications of optimal transport to various areas, such as economics, finance, potential games, image processing and fluid dynamics. Several topics are covered that have never been previously in books on this subject, such as the Knothe transport, the properties of functionals on measures, the Dacorogna-Moser flow, the formulation through minimal flows with prescribed divergence formulation, the case of the supremal cost, and the most classical numerical methods. Graduate students and researchers in both pure and applied mathematics interested in the problems and applications of optimal transport will find this to be an invaluable resource.