On uniqueness in a lateral Cauchy problem with multiple characteristics (Q678024)

We consider the differential operators \(\square_b\Delta\), \(\partial^2_t+\Delta^2\) and derive for them Carleman type estimates with a special weight function which in particular imply uniqueness in the Cauchy problem for lower order perturbations of related differential equations, e.g. for \[ (\partial^2_t+ \Delta^2+\sum a_\alpha\partial^\alpha)u= 0\quad\text{in }Q,\quad u=\cdots=\partial^3_vu=0\quad\text{on }\Gamma,\tag{1} \] where \(Q\) is a cylindrical domain \(\Omega\times(0,T)\) in \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) and \(\Gamma\) is a (cylindrical) part of its lateral boundary \(\partial\Omega\times(0, T)\) such that \(\text{conv hull }\Gamma= \Omega\). Here, \(|\alpha|\leq 2\), the coefficients \(a_\alpha\) depend on both time and space variables and are measurable and bounded. Actually, one of the goals of this study was to obtain similar uniqueness results for the (nonlinear) system describing a thin elastic plate \[ \partial^2_tu-\text{div}(\varepsilon(u)+ f(\nabla w))=0\quad\text{in }Q,\tag{2} \] \[ \partial^2_tw- c\Delta\partial^2_t w+\Delta^2w- \text{div}(\varepsilon(u)+ f(\nabla w))\cdot\nabla w=0, \] where \(f(\nabla w)= 1/2\nabla w\otimes\nabla w\). Indeed, we are able to derive from our results that a regular (\(C^5\) is enough) solution to the system (2) is uniquely determined in the domain \(Q_0\) by the Cauchy data on \(\Gamma\) provided \(f\in C^4\). The domain \(Q_0\subset Q\) depends on \(\Gamma\) and is explicitly described by some quadratic function. We expect that other important systems of mathematical physics can be handled in a similar manner. We observe that both the equation (1) and the system (2) as well as the simpler scalar equation for the Kirchhoff plate considered in section 1 have multiple characteristics and cannot be included in the existing theory of uniqueness in the Cauchy problem.