An introduction to the study of critical points of solutions of elliptic and parabolic equations

Abstract: We give a survey at an introductory level of old and recent results in the study of critical points of solutions of elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations. To keep the presentation simple, we mainly consider four exemplary boundary value problems: the Dirichlet problem for the Laplace's equation; the torsional creep problem; the case of Dirichlet eigenfunctions for the Laplace's equation; the initial-boundary value problem for the heat equation. We shall mostly address three issues: the estimation of the local size of the critical set; the dependence of the number of critical points on the boundary values and the geometry of the domain; the location of critical points in the domain.