Linear Ordinary Differential Equations

Linear Ordinary Differential Equations, a text for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students, presents a thorough development of the main topics in linear differential equations. A rich collection of applications, examples, and exercises illustrates each topic. The authors reinforce students’ understanding of calculus, linear algebra, and analysis while introducing the many applications of differential equations in science and engineering. Three recurrent themes run through the book. The methods of linear algebra are applied directly to the analysis of systems with constant or periodic coefficients and serve as a guide in the study of eigenvalues and eigenfunction expansions. The use of power series, beginning with the matrix exponential function leads to the special functions solving classical equations. Techniques from real analysis illuminate the development of series solutions, existence theorems for initial value problems, the asymptotic behavior solutions, and the convergence of eigenfunction expansions.