<FONT COLOR="#FF0000">Math518: Partial Differential Equations

Math518: Partial Differential Equations



Class meets: MW4, 1:40--3:00pm in Hill-423.
Instructor: Dr. Zheng-Chao Han
Office Hours: T11:00-noon, W3:00-4:00pm. Hill 230.
Email: zchan at math dot rutgers dot edu (I prefer to answer math questions in person during office hours, not through emails; I try to process my emails once per day ).
Sakai: The course will use Sakai for all material during the semester. All enrolled students should have automatic access to the site after logging in to Sakai. Current information about syllabus, grading policy, homework and mid-term assignments will be found there.

Do not forget to "reload" the assignments pages - if you visited them before, your browser may be showing you only the old cached page.


Course Description: This course will be a continuation of the PDE course, 517, offered in the fall semester. We will take a similar approach, i.e., we will emphasize the methods than the most general forms of the results. One main theme will be how to extend the results and methods for dealing with constant coefficients prototype equations to related variable coefficients and nonlinear equations. We will continue to use the text being used in 517, ``Partial Differential Equations" by Lawrence C. Evans. I am planning to focus my discussion around chapters 6--8 and 3--4, and perhaps supplementing with some material not contained in the text. Students' input may affect my emphasis and order of presentation. Students should be prepared to do some reading and working of certain sections on their own.


Homework and Grading Policy: Working through problems---writing up complete solutions to enough exercises with sufficient details---is essential for this course: this is how you learn the craft of this trade; and it is also good preparation for writing up proof details for your future dissertation. I will assign exercises and collect a portion for grading. I also plan to give a take-home midterm and final exam. Here is the course grading policy:

Course Material: In addition to our main text "Partial Differential Equations" by Lawrence C. Evans, published by AMS, 2002, I will also suggest other references whenever I find them useful. The course page of Professor Safanov of the University of Minnesota provides another perspective on a graduate PDE course and many additional problems for students to try on. I have also requested to put some additional books on reserve in the math library, including: