Difference Equations: An Introduction with Applications

Difference Equations, Second Edition, presents a practical introduction to this important field of solutions for engineering and the physical sciences. Topic coverage includes numerical analysis, numerical methods, differential equations, combinatorics and discrete modeling. A hallmark of this revision is the diverse application to many subfields of mathematics.


* Phase plane analysis for systems of two linear equations
* Use of equations of variation to approximate solutions
* Fundamental matrices and Floquet theory for periodic systems
* LaSalle invariance theorem
* Additional applications: secant line method, Bison problem, juvenile-adult population model, probability theory
* Appendix on the use of Mathematica for analyzing difference equaitons
* Exponential generating functions
* Many new examples and exercises

Introduction
The Difference Calculus.
Linear Difference Equations.
Stability Theory.
Asymptotic Methods.
The Self-Adjoint Second Order Linear Equation.
The Sturm-Liouville Problem.
Discrete Calculus of Variations.
Boundary Value Problems for Nonlinear Equations.
Partial Difference Equations.