Differential Geometric Methods in the Control of Partial Differential Equations

This volume contains selected papers that were presented at the AMS-IMS-SIAM Joint Summer Research Conference on Differential Geometric Methods in the Control of Partial Differential Equations, which was held at the University of Colorado in Boulder in June, 1999. The aim of the conference was to explore the infusion of differential-geometric methods into the analysis of control theory of partial differential equations, particularly in the challenging case of variable co-efficients, where the physical characteristics of the medium vary from point to point. While a mutually profitable link has been long established, for at least 30 years, between differential geometry and control of ordinary differential equations, a comparable relationship between differential geometry and control of partial differential equations (PDEs) is a new and promising topic. Very recent research, just prior to the Colorado conference, supported the expectation that differential geometric methods, when brought to bear on classes of PDE modelling and control problems with variable coefficients, will yield significant mathematical advances.