The flat Cauchy problem for radially hyperbolic operators from a characteristic manifold of high codimension (Q1064470)

Let P(t,\(\theta\),t \(\partial_ t,\partial_{\theta})=(t \partial_ t)^ m+\sum^{m-1}_{j=0}P_{m-j}(t,\theta,\partial_{\theta}) (t \partial_ t)^ j\) be a linear differential operator where \(P_{m-j}\) is of order m-j with smooth coefficients on \((t,\theta)\in [0,T]\times S^{n-1}\) which is transformed from \(P(x,\partial_ x)\), a differential operator on \(W=\{x\in {\mathbb{R}}^ n;\quad | x| \leq T\}\) with \(0<T\leq \infty\) by the polar coordinate transformation \(x=t \theta\), \(t=| x|\). P is called (strictly) radially hyperbolic at \(O\in W\) if the principal symbol \(P_ m(t,\theta,P,\eta)\) has (distinct) real roots in P. The author considers the flat Cauchy problem \[ Pu=f,\quad \partial^ j_ tu|_{t=0}=0\quad for\quad j=0,1,2,... \] where \(f\in C^{\infty}([0,T]\times S^{n-1})\) with \(\partial^ j_ tf|_{t=0}=0\) for \(j=0,1,2,... \). The problem is to show the existence of solutions since the uniqueness has been proved by \textit{S. Alinhac} and \textit{M. S. Baouendi} [Am. J. Math. 102, 179-217 (1980; Zbl 0425.35098)]. His method is, firstly, to have a nice distribution solution of the equation \(Q_{\lambda}w=t^{-\lambda} f\) for large integers \(\lambda\) where \(Q_{\lambda}=P(t,\theta,t \partial_ t+\lambda,\partial_{\theta}).\) Then \(u=t^{\lambda} w\) solves \(Pu=f\). Secondly, a solution for a finite flat Cauchy problem is obtained in \(C^ k([0,T_ 0]\), \(S^{n-1})\) with \(T_ 0<T\), flat to order k. Finally choosing k large and applying the uniqueness theorem gives a \(C^{\infty}\)-flat solution. Also the author studies the flat Cauchy problem for the radially hyperbolic operator with respect to \(\Sigma\), a submanifold with dim \(\Sigma\geq 1\) and proves the well-posedness. Finally the same result for certain first order hyperbolic system is obtained. All the theorems are given for M, a smooth compact (n-1) manifold, instead of \(S^{n-1}\).