This book deals with a class of mathematical problems which involve the minimization of the sum of a volume and a surface energy and have lately been referred to as 'free discontinuity problems'. The aim of this book is twofold: The first three chapters present all the basic prerequisites for the treatment of free discontinuity and other variational problems in a systematic, general, and self-contained way. In the later chapters, the reader is introduced to the theory of free discontinuity problems, to the space of special functions of bounded variation, and is presented with a detailed...