Spectral and Dynamical Stability of Nonlinear Waves

Introduction.- Background material and notation.- Essential and absolute spectra.- Dynamical implications of spectra: dissipative systems.- Dynamical implications of spectra: Hamiltonian systems.- Dynamical implications of spectra: Hamiltonian systems.- Point spectrum: reduction to finite-rank eigenvalue problems.- Point spectrum: linear Hamiltonian systems.- The Evans function for boundary value problems.- The Evans function for Sturm-Liouville operators on the real line.- The Evans function for nth-order operators on the real line.- Index.- References.