Partial Differential Equations with Evans: An In-Depth Guide

Introduction

The book “Partial Differential Equations” by Lawrence Craig Evans may be far newer than the namesake discipline itself (1st edition published in 1998, 2nd edition in 2010), but it has already become one of the widest-reaching, most frequently used texts on the subject of all time. It covers a wide range of topics within partial differential equations and finds itself as a text for many graduate courses, in addition to being a reference for researchers further along in their career.

I recently wrote an article highlighting a handful of different partial differential equations texts at different levels of difficulty. However I’ve used the Evans text so extensively that I felt it merited an article just for itself.

I’m first going to do a brief rundown of the content the book covers. Then I’ll talk about how the level of difficulty and assumed background knowledge varies throughout the book. Then, I’ll cover how the courses I’ve taken in the past incorporated this text into the curriculum: what sections were covered and in what order.

I hope in my detailing of how each class used Evans, that it not only gives me an opportunity to detail my personal experience in using the book, but that it also provides a starting ground for ideas on how to incorporate the text into future courses.

Before any of that though, let me provide you with a picture of the cover.