Generalized Levi conditions for weakly hyperbolic equations. An attempt to treat the degeneracy with respect to the space variables (Q1094590)

Let \(P(t,x,D_ t,D_ x)=\sum_{0\leq h\leq m}P_{m-h}(t,x,D_ t,D_ x)\) be a hyperbolic operator in a neighborhood \(\Omega\) of \((0,0)\in {\mathbb{R}}\times {\mathbb{R}}^ n\), where \(P_{m-h}(t,x,\tau,\xi)\) is homogeneous of degree m-h with respect to (\(\tau\),\(\xi)\) and \(p_ m(t,x;1,0)=1\) in \(\Omega\). The microlocal Levi condition (a necessary condition for well-posedness of Cauchy problem for P) is formulated in terms of the Newton polygon. Namely, let \(q=(q_ 0,...,q_ n)\), \(q_ j>0\) be a sequence of rational numbers; using the principal symbol \(p_ m\) a Newton polygon \({\tilde \Delta}\) is defined and the following conditions are assumed: (1) \(q_ 0+\tilde k_ 1>g_ j\) \((j=1,...,n)\), (2) if \((j+| \alpha |\), \(q_ 0(k+| \alpha |)+<q,\beta -\alpha >)\not\in {\tilde \Delta}\), then \(P^{(j,\alpha)}_{m,(k,\beta)}(0,0;0,e_ n)=0,\) where \(\tilde k_ 1\) is a certain parameter of \({\tilde \Delta}\), \(f^{(j,\alpha)}_{(k,\beta)}=\partial^ k_ t\partial_ x^{\beta}\partial^ j_ t\partial^{\alpha}_{\xi}f\) and \(e_ n=(0,0,...,0,1)\in {\mathbb{R}}^ n\). The main result of the paper is the following theorem, being a generalization of the well known results of V. Ja. Ivrij and V. M. Petkov. Theorem. Assume the conditions (1) and (2). If the Cauchy problem for P is well-posed on \(\Omega^+\), then the following holds: if \((j+| \alpha | +h,\quad q_ 0(k+| \alpha | +h)+<q,\beta -\alpha >)\not\in {\tilde \Delta},\) then \(P^{(j,\alpha)}_{m- h,(k,\beta)}(0,0;0,e_ n)=0.\) With help of this theorem necessary and sufficient conditions of correctness are obtained for operators with t- involutive characteristics. Examples illustrating the results are considered.