Download or read book Cartesian Currents in the Calculus of Variations II written by Mariano Giaquinta and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1998-08-19 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph (in two volumes) deals with non scalar variational problems arising in geometry, as harmonic mappings between Riemannian manifolds and minimal graphs, and in physics, as stable equilibrium configuations in nonlinear elasticity or for liquid crystals. The presentation is selfcontained and accessible to non specialists. Topics are treated as far as possible in an elementary way, illustrating results with simple examples; in principle, chapters and even sections are readable independently of the general context, so that parts can be easily used for graduate courses. Open questions are often mentioned and the final section of each chapter discusses references to the literature and sometimes supplementary results. Finally, a detailed Table of Contents and an extensive Index are of help to consult this monograph