Unique continuation for operators with partially analytic coefficients (Q1305137)

The author is interested in the unique continuation problem for partial differential operators, where the coefficients are analytic with respect to some of the variables. The main idea is to introduce the notion that an operator is analytically principally normal. For important classes of operators this property follows from the property of principal normality, but in general this statement seems to be open. Then the following assumptions lead to a unique continuation result: \(\bullet\) The operator \(P\) is analytically principally normal in the conormal bundle \(N^*{\mathcal F}\) of the foliation \({\mathcal F}\), where \(N^*{\mathcal F}= \{(x,\xi)\in T^*\mathbb{R}^n: \xi_a=0\}\). \(\bullet\) A given oriented hypersurface \(\sum\) is strongly pseudoconvex with respect to \(P\) in the conormal bundle \(N^*_{x_0} {\mathcal F}\), where \(x_0\in\sum\). Thus the pseudoconvexity is only given in the set \(\{(x_0,0, \xi_b)\}\). The author proves Carleman estimates which lead to the unique continuation property.