Cauchy problem for overdetermined systems (Q810749)

The main goal of the article is to study the Cauchy problem for overdetermined systems of constant coefficient linear partial differential operators. The notions of noncharacteristicity, of hyperbolicity, of equations of evolution type, and of propagation cones are introduced and conditions of an algebraic nature are considered with which one can check or compute these entities. The proofs are based on tools from the theory of functions of several complex variables and commutative algebra.