What is a good PDE book suitable for self study? I'm looking for a book that doesn't require much prerequisite knowledge beyond undergraduate-level analysis. My goal is to understand basic solutions techniques as well as some basic theory.
2026-04-09 05:25:24.1775712324
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Good 1st PDE book for self study
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I like Karl E. Gustafson's Introduction to Partial Differential Equations and Hilbert Space Methods. It was certainly readable after an advanced calc sequence. You will find a few short and worthwhile conversational paragraphs throughout the book. He also uses the technique of revisiting interesting concepts from different perspectives throughout the book. And it's a Dover paperback, so it's cheap.
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Logan's Applied Partial Differential Equations might be suitable for you if you want a (relatively) quick overview of the subject, since it's not very long (about 200 pages). It's aimed at undergraduates in math, engineering and the sciences.
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I would recommend:
Fritz John, Partial Differential Equations (Applied Mathematical Sciences) ISBN: 0387906096. It is a classical Springer book that contains what you ask for.
Google Books might be a good start before you make your final decision.
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I haven't read a lot of PDE material, but I enjoyed Taylor's book. It's quite well-written, and also contains introductory material (like Lie derivatives), since it does things on manifolds.
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I think you cannot get anything better than Evans' book. Its size may be a little scaring, but it is the most clear and well written book on the subject I ever met.
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Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers by Farlow. It's Dover, so it's cheap. And it's a great first intro - very applied. If you want to follow on with a more rigorous one, you can't beat Evans (Springer - ISBN13: 978-0821207729)
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I would also like to add Peter Olver's "Introduction to partial differential equations" to this growing list. It was published in 2014 and is very suitable for self-studying. The preface does a good job of explaining the various topics and prerequisites required to understand PDEs which I hadn't appreciated until I read it in the book-highly recommended. Solutions to about 20% of exercises are available on the author's website.
The book by Strauss is pretty good for a first course. For a second one the book by Evans is nice but it requires some knowledge of measure theory and functional analysis.