This monograph contains a collection of 16 papers that were presented at
the confer- ence "Free Boundary Problems: Numerical 7reatment and
Optimal Control", held at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut
Oberwolfach, West Germany, July 9-15, 1989. It was the aim of the
organizers of the meeting to bring together experts from different areas
in the broad field of free boundary problems, where a certain emphasis
was given to the numerical treatment and optimal control of free
boundary problems. However, during the conference also a number papers
leading to important new theoretical insights were presented. The strong
connection between theory and applications finds its reflection in this
monograph which contains papers of high theoretical and numerical
interest, as well as applications to important practical problems. Many
of the contributions are concerned with phase transition phenomena, a
field which was of particular importance during the meeting; topics like
spinodal decomposition, shape memory alloys, crystal growth and flow
through porous media are addressed. Another field of major interest
during the con- ference was fluid flow; also this field is addressed in
this volume. The volume opens with a contribution by H. W. Alt and I.
Pawlow. In their paper the problem of spinodal decomposition is treated
in the non-isothermal situation. For the first time the existence of a
weak solution to the corresponding system of evolution equations could
be proved. The results of some numerical experiments are also reported.
In the following paper, M. Bornert and I.