Selected chapters in the calculus of variations

the long version

These lecture notes describe the Aubry-Mather-Theory within the calculus of variations. The text consists of the translated original lectures of Jürgen Moser and a bibliographic appendix with comments on the current state of the art in this field of interest. Students will find a rapid introduction to the calculus of variations, leading to modern dynamical systems theory. Differential geometric applications are discussed, in particular billiards and minimal geodesics on the two-dimensional torus. Many exercises and open questions make this book a valuable resource for both teaching and research.