Semiconcave Functions, Hamilton-Jacobi Equations, and Optimal Control [Hardcover]

* A comprehensive and systematic exposition of the properties of semiconcave functions and their various applications, particularly to optimal control problems, by leading experts in the field

* A central role in the present work is reserved for the study of singularities

* Graduate students and researchers in optimal control, the calculus of variations, and PDEs will find this book useful as a reference work on modern dynamic programming for nonlinear control systems

Semiconcavity is a natural generalization of concavity that retains most of the good properties known in convex analysis, but arises in a wider range of applications. This text is the first comprehensive exposition of the theory of semiconcave functions, and of the role they play in optimal control and Hamilton-Jacobi equations.

The first part covers the general theory, encompassing all key results and illustrating them with significant examples. The latter part is devoted to applications concerning the Bolza problem in the calculus of variations and optimal exit time problems for nonlinear control systems. The exposition is essentially self-contained since the book includes all prerequisites from convex analysis, nonsmooth analysis, and viscosity solutions.

The main purpose of this book is to provide a systematic study of the notion of semiconcave functions, as well as a presentation of mathematical fields in which this notion plays a fundamental role. Many results are extracted from articles by the authors and their collaborators, with simplifiedand often newpresentation and proofs.... One of the most attractive features of this book is the interplay between lã�