Special Issue on "Rate-independent evolutions and hysteresis modelling"

The interest in hysteresis and rate-independent phenomena is shared by scientists with
a great variety of different backgrounds. We can encounter these processes in several
situations of common life: for instance in elasto-plasticity, ferromagnetism, shape memory
alloys, phase transitions. Beyond physics, hysteresis and rate-independent
phenomena appear also in engineering, biology, economics as well as in many other
settings, playing an important role in many applications. The complexity arising in
these fields necessarily requires a joint contribution of experts with different backgrounds
and skills. Therefore, only synergy and cooperation among these several people
can lead to concrete advances in the technological capabilities of our society.
This special issue of Rendiconti del Seminario Matematico is devoted to the
latest advances and trends in the modelling and in the analysis of this family of complex
phenomena, motivated by the Spring School on Rate-independent Evolutions and
Hysteresis Modelling, held at the Politecnico di Milano and University of Milano on
May 27-31, 2013. In particular, we gathered contributions from different area of mathematics,
with the intent of presenting an updated picture of current research directions,
offering a new perspective in the study of these processes.