During the nine years since the publication of the ?rst edition of this book, therehasbeensubstantialprogressonthetreatmentofwell-setpr- lemsofnonlinearsolidmechanics. Themainpurposesofthissecondedition are to update the ?rst edition by giving a coherent account of some of the new developments, to correct errors, and to re?ne the exposition. Much of the text has been rewritten, reorganized, and extended. The philosophy underlying my approach is exactly that given in the following (slightly modi?ed) Preface to the First Edition. In particular, I continue to adhere to my policy of eschewing...

The 39 papers in this collection are devoted mostly to the exact mathematical analysis of problems in continuum mechanics, but also to problems of a purely mathematical nature mainly connected to partial differential equations from continuum physics. All the papers are dedicated to J. Serrin and were originally published in the "Archive of Rational Mechanics and Analysis".

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications Metastability and Incompletely Posed Problems represents the proceedings of a workshop which was an integral part of the 19R4-R5 IMA program on CONTINUUM PHYSICS AND PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EOIIATIONS. We are grateful to the Scientific Committee:, I.L. Eri cksen D. Kinderlehrer H. Rrezis C. Dafermos for their dedication and hard work in developing an imaginative, stimulating, and productive year-long program. George R. Sell Hans Weinberger Preface Most equilibrium events in nature do not realize configurations of minimum energy. They are only...