In this book, the mathematical framework for a rigorous mathematical treatment of "rate-independent systems" is presented in a comprehensive form for the first time. Researchers and graduate students in applied mathematics, engineering, and computational physics will find this timely and well written book useful.
Alexander Mielke is Professor at Humboldt University of Berlin as well as a head of the research group "Partial Differential Equations" at the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics. His research interest range over applied mathematical analysis, partial differential equations, multi-scale modeling and applications in continuum physics.
Tomáš Roubíček is a Professor at Charles University in Prague, as well as a researcher at Institute of Thermomechanics and also at Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Having an engineering background, his professional activity has evolved from computer simulations of systems of nonlinear partial differential equations thru numerical mathematics and optimization theory to applied mathematical analysis focused to mathematical modeling in engineering and physics.