Publisher's Synopsis
The book is an attempt to bring together various topics in partial differential equations related to the Cauchy problem for solutions of an elliptic equation. Ever since Hadamard, the Cauchy problem for solutions of elliptic equations has been known to be ill–posed. It is conditionally stable, just as is the case for even the simplest problems of analytic continuation of functions given on a subset of the boundary. (Such problems of analytic continuation served as a paradigm for the treatment here.) The study of the Cauchy problem is carried out in three directions: determining the degree of instability, which is connected with sharp theorems on approximation by solutions of an elliptic equation; finding solvability conditions, which is based on the development of Hilbert space methods in the Cauchy problem; and reconstructing solutions via their Cauchy data, which requires efficient ways of approximation. A wide range of topics is touched upon, among them are function spaces on compact sets, boundedness theorems for pseudodifferential operators in nonlocal spaces, nonlinear capacity and removable singularities, fundamental solutions, capacitary criteria for approximation by solutions of elliptic equations, and weak boundary values of the solutions. The theory applies as well to the Cauchy problem for solution of<br> overdetermined elliptic systems. <br>
