The use of PDE’s in Physics. First order equations. Classification of second order equations. Hyperbolic equations. Elliptic equations. Parabolic equations.
Courses required: Calculus
Courses recommended: a course on ODE’s
Teaching Methods
Total hours of the course (including the time spent in attending lectures, seminars, private study, examinations, etc...):
75
Hours reserved to private study and other individual formative activities:
Contact hours for: Lectures (hours): 25
Further information
Office hours:
Any time, on request
Type of Assessment
Exam modality:
Oral examination
Course program
Course Contents (detailed program):
Examples of applications of PDE’s in Physics (Burgers’ equation, KdV equation and solitons, etc.)
First order equations. Shocks propagation. Classification of second order equations. Characteristic lines. Examples of ill posed problems.
Hyperbolic equations, the initial-boundary value problem, d’Alembert’s solution of the waves equation, Fourier’s method and Helmholtz’ equation, Riemann’s method, Goursat’s problem, method of descent.
Elliptic equations (Laplace and Poisson equations, harmonic functions), maximum principles, Green’s and Neumann’s functions, solution of the Dirichlet problem in the sphere and in a semi-infinite domain, representation formulas, relationship between harmonic and holomorphic functions, conformal mappings.
Parabolic equations, the heat equation, maximum principles, self-similar solutions, the fundamental solution, Green’s and Neumann’s functions, thermal potentials, the jump relation, representation formulas of solutions of initial-boundary value problems.