Cauchy problem for a partial differential equation

A Cauchy problem prescribes a solution and enough of its derivatives on a hypersurface to determine local evolution away from that hypersurface.

For a scalar equation of order $k$, Cauchy data consist of the first $k$ normal jets $u,{\partial }_{N}u,\dots ,{\partial }_N^{k-1}u$ on the initial hypersurface.

For an order-$k$ scalar quasilinear partial differential equation with real-analytic coefficients, real-analytic Cauchy data on a real-analytic non-characteristic hypersurface determine a unique real-analytic solution in a neighbourhood of each point of that hypersurface.