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The conformal map $w=z^2$ sends $x,y>0$ to the complex upper half-plane. For bounded continuous boundary values $g_2$ on the horizontal axis and $g_1$ on the vertical axis with equal corner values, set $f(s)=g_2(\sqrt{s})$ for $s>0$ and $f(s)=g_1(\sqrt{-s})$ for $s<0$. The bounded harmonic function with those Dirichlet boundary conditions isEquivalently, if $z^2=a+ic$ with $c>0$, this is $\frac{2c}{\pi }{\int }_0^{\infty }r\left[g_2(r)/((r^2-a{)}^2+c^2)+g_1(r)/((r^2+a{)}^2+c^2)\right]dr$. The Poisson kernel is a positive approximate identity, so the prescribed edge values are attained. Boundedness is essential for uniqueness on this unbounded domain.

The centered normal densitiesform an approximate identity: for every $f\in L^1(\mathbb{R})$, $f\ast g_t\to f$ at almost every point where the Lebesgue differentiation theorem applies. Their Fourier transforms are $e^{-t{\xi }^2/2}$ in the angular-frequency convention.

The normalized Gaussian mass of an interval isIt is the convolution of an interval indicator with the heat kernel, and has an error function representation. As the variance tends to zero it converges to the interval indicator away from its endpoints, with value one half at an endpoint. This is a concrete approximate identity.

Convolution of this kernel with Dirichlet boundary data supplies the boundary forcing for $u_t=u_{xx}+\alpha u_x$ on $x>0$. It is $-(2{\partial }_x+\alpha )H(x+\alpha t,t)$. For $\alpha \ge 0$, its total time mass is $e^{-\alpha x}$, tending to one as $x\downarrow 0$, and its mass away from zero time tends to zero. Thus the boundary value is recovered through an approximate identity, not by pointwise substitution $x=0$ in the kernel.

For the heat equation on ${\mathbb{R}}^n$ with diffusion coefficient one, the heat kernel is $K_t(x)=(4\pi t{)}^{-n/2}{e}^{-|x{|}^2/(4t)}$. Its convolution with bounded initial data is smooth for positive time, solves the equation by differentiation under the integral, and returns continuous initial data locally uniformly through the approximate identity property. It is Gaussian filtering with per-coordinate variance $2t$.

The inverse Fourier transform of $(1-|\xi |{)}_{+}$ in three dimensions, with $a=2\pi |x|$, is $-4\pi \sin a/a^3+8\pi (1-\cos a)/a^4$. Its leading oscillatory $|x{|}^{-3}$ tail is not absolutely integrable against the radial volume element $4\pi |x{|}^{2}d|x|$. Multiplying by a Gaussian Fourier transform retains a nonzero boundary-derivative tail, so the radial cutoff need not map even Schwartz functions into $L^1$. A tensor product of one-dimensional triangular cutoffs is a valid approximate identity, and must not be confused with this Euclidean radial cutoff.