Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theory for nonlinear equations with deviating variables (Q5945991)

This interesting paper is devoted to the initial-value problem for the equation \[ D_tu(t,z)= f\biggl(t,z,u\bigl( \alpha(t,z)\bigr), D_zu\bigl( \beta(t,z) \bigr) \biggr). \] It is considered the complex case, where \(t\) and \(z\) are complex. The real case \((t\) real, \(z\) complex), can be treated in a similar way. The authors look for holomorphic solutions to the Cauchy problem \[ D_t u(t,z)= f\biggl(t,z,u \bigl(\alpha^{(0)} (t,z)\bigr),\;D_zu\bigl( \alpha^{ (1)}(t,z)\bigr), \dots,D_z^k u\bigl(\alpha^{(k)} (t,z)\bigr) \biggr) \] under initial condition \(u(0,z)= 0\) \((z\in\Omega\) -- bounded open domain in \(\mathbb{C})\). It is shown that there exist holomorphic solutions. Although Kovalevskaya's classical counterexample \(D_tu=D_{zz}u\) shows that one cannot allow \(z\)-derivatives of higher order than 1 in the classical version of the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem, the authors point out that it is possible to include \(D_{zz}u\) and higher \(z\)-derivatives when the deviations \(\alpha(t,z)\) stay far away from the boundary of a cut conical region with slope \(\eta\) in some \((t, z)\)-subspace of \(\mathbb{C}\times \mathbb{C}\). The result is generalized for equations with many independent variables \(z_1,z_2,\dots,z_n\).