independent work on a special topic within variational calculus (partially its connection to partial differential equations); preparation of an own seminar talk

Variational problems appear in many applications from natural sciences: classical mechanics (e.g. elastic bars, gyroscope), microstructures (e.g. hirarchical structures in leaves, turbulences in fluid flows, phase mixtures in crystals), magnetic vortex fields in superconductivity.

In this seminar we shall discuss such applications, the mathematical modeling and the analysis of such problems.

final time and location can be arranged;

SECOND ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING: 15.10.2014, 11:15

Talks can be given either in German or English.

good seminar talk, written seminar notes, regular participation

S. Müller: Variational models for microstructure and phase transitions,  CIME-lecture notes 199; LNM 1713

J.M. Ball, R.D. James: Fine phase mixtures as minimizers of energy, ARMA 1987.

G. Dolzmann: Variational methods for crystalline microstructure - analysis and computation, Springer, 2003.

P.  Pedregal: Variational Methods in Nonlinear Elasticity, SIAM 2000.

Calculus of variations