The book is devoted to rigorous mathematical results on discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations (DNLS), including the initial value problem of the time-dependent DNLS and the standing wave of the stationary DNLS.
The stationary DNLS equations emerge as equations for the profile of the standing wave in evolutionary DNLS. The book mainly presents well-localized, finite-energy solutions that represent solitary standing waves (breathers in the terminology of nonlinear science), while some other types of solutions are considered as well. The approach accepted in this book is variational, based on various critical point theorems of the mountain pass and linking type, as well as constrained minimization.
The book covers the existence of solutions and their properties under various physically reasonable assumptions on linear and nonlinear potentials. It also contains a number of open problems which might be thesis topics for fresh PhD students. The results presented are scattered over a large number of research articles and have never been presented in a monograph form. In addition, there is necessary material from the spectral theory of discrete Schrödinger operators, time-dependent DNLS, and a brief presentation of critical point theorems used in the book.
Contents:
- Preliminaries
- Time Dependent Discrete Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation
- Critical Point Theorems
- Stationary Discrete Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation with Unbounded Potentials
- Stationary Discrete Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation with Periodic Potentials
- Stationary Discrete Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation with Nonlocal Nonlinearity
- Constrained Minimization and Excitation Thresholds
Readership: Graduate students, academics and researchers who are engaged in the areas of Mathematical Physics, Calculus of Variations, Nonlinear Analysis, and other fields of pure and applied mathematics. And also academics and researchers who are actively studying various areas of physics, such as Nonlinear Optics and Nonlinear Science (breathers).
Guoping Zhang is currently a tenured associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at Morgan State University. He earned his PhD degree in mathematical physics from the University of Tokyo, a prestigious institution in Japan and worldwide.
Professor Zhang has authored more than 40 journal papers, some of which have been published in top-rated journals such as Communications in Mathematical Physics and the Journal of Differential Equations, among others. Additionally, Professor Zhang served as the corresponding organizer of JMM special sessions in 2008 (San Diego), 2009 (Washington, DC), 2012 (Boston), 2014 (Baltimore), 2019 (Baltimore), and 2023 (Boston).
Alexander Pankov was a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Morgan State University. He passed away in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Pankov was a well-known mathematician worldwide and had published more than 200 journal papers throughout his career. Some of his papers garnered a large volume of citations. In recognition of his substantial contributions to the mathematical community, certain mathematical methods he initiated have been named after him, including the Nehari–Pankov manifold method, among others.