Carleman type estimates in an anisotropic case and applications (Q689082)

We give proofs and some further applications of estimates announced in the author's note [Sov. Math. Dokl. 22, 639-642 (1980); transl. from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 255, 18-21 (1980; Zbl 0468.35030)]. These results extend those of \textit{L. Hörmander} [Linear partial differential operators, Springer, Berlin etc. (1963; Zbl 0108.09301)] to equations with nonhomogeneous principal part such as parabolic equations and the Schrödinger equation. The basic idea was developed by Carleman in the 1930s and actually all the techniques we need are available from Hörmander's book [loc. cit.]. We give general theorems and show how to apply them to ill-posed Cauchy problems for some important equations. We would like to emphasize that the results obtained in this paper can be considered as a step in the complete understanding of the principal part of a general differential equation if we are interested in the Cauchy problem for this equation. In Section 1, we formulate main results, in Section 2, we give the theory of differential quadratic forms in the anisotropic case. In Sections 3, 4 we prove Carleman estimates, and in Section 5 the stability estimate for the Cauchy problem. Section 6 is dedicated to examples.