Calculus of Variations

Abstract

The workshop continued the longstanding biannual series at Oberwolfach on Calculus of Variations. This Oberwolfach series provides an imporant service to the mathematics community, being currently the only periodic international meeting in this very active area. The main themes of the workshop were variational methods in differential geometry and in nonlinear partial differential equations theory, where exciting topics included geometric flows, condensation and singularity formation in geometric problems, and mass transportation phenomena in partial differential equations. Among the many traditional and non-traditional application areas of the calculus of variations, the talks covered aspects of general relativity, discrete systems, phase transitions and microstructure, fluid dynamics, quantum chemistry, and approximation theory for rough function spaces.