Lectures on nonlinear physics

The main goal of these lectures is to get students acquainted with a glossary of nonlinear physics. I try to present the material of the lectures (delivered at SNS Pisa in April — June 1999) in such a way that the students do not need to use additional literature during the first reading. The lectures focus on the following arguments: discussion of nonlinear problems in classical physics; the use of the multiple time scale expansion method to solve problems of nonlinear oscillations; description of nonlinear wave steepening and shock wave formation using the Lagrange variables; solution of nonlinear elliptic equations considering the Liouville equation; soliton solutions of the Korteweg de Vries, Sine-Gordon and Nonlinear Schrödinger equations; the use of the Backlund transformation; self-similarity of nonlinear systems.