Lecture by David Dobson, May 23, 2:30


Principal Lecturers Tutorials Local Lecturers & Topics Participants Schedule, Abstracts, & Notes Contact Visiting Utah Publicity Flyer Home		Lecture by David Dobson, May 23, 2:30 - 3:30 pm Simple variational methods in wave propagation Variational principles are often associated with "steady-state" systems in which preferred states of the system are characterized by energy minimization. Wave propagation problems typically do not fit in this framework. After briefly discussing Hamilton's principle of least action, we will look at a few simple examples of variational problems arising in wave propagation, and describe how variational methods can still be extremely useful despite the inherent lack of convexity in the Lagrangian.
Department of Mathematics VIGRE University of Utah