Stochastic calculus of variations for stochastic partial differential equations (Q1107903)

Malliavin calculus is developed for some abstract evolution equations which satisfy an appropriate coercivity condition. Since these equations generally contain unbounded operators in Hilbert spaces, Galerkin approximations are used for the proof of the smoothness of correlation functionals on Wiener spaces [cf. \textit{E. Pardoux}, Stochastics 3, 127- 167 (1979; Zbl 0424.60067)]. The above results are applied to a class of stochastic pde's which includes the Zakai equation of nonlinear filtering. The main theorem of this part of the paper states a Lie algebraic criterion for the existence of a density for the finite-dimensional projections of the solution of the stochastic pde. The proof is related to the known proofs of Hörmander's hypoellipticity theorem using Malliavin's calculus.