Backward heat equation 2026-10-07
A Fourier mode has multiplier , amplifying arbitrarily small high-frequency data. For a fixed positive time , initial modes tend to zero in while their values at grow without bound. This violates continuous dependence on initial data and gives an ill-posed problem in ordinary unweighted spaces. An analytic-data restriction or physical short-scale regularization changes that conclusion.
Non-characteristic. The first-order principal symbol is , which equals one on .
Set . The equation is equivalent to . Because is continuously differentiable, the Cauchy-Riemann equations imply that it is a holomorphic function of . Its convergent complex Taylor series restricts to a real power series along , so is a real analytic function.
For smooth-data instability of the Cauchy-Riemann Cauchy problem, choose
These are entire functions and satisfy the equation. Their initial derivatives obey , so every finite sum tends to zero. But
Thus analytic solutions can exist while continuous dependence on initial data fails for this smooth-data topology.
The Cauchy estimate follows directly from the differentiated Cauchy integral formula:
The circle has length , giving the bound for every integer .
Put and integrate on the straight segment . For fixed , a disc centred at with radius approaching stays inside . Applying the first-derivative Cauchy estimate there gives
Integrating its modulus and taking the supremum over is exactly the asserted integral estimate. The source cancels from .
To obtain a contraction mapping, use the weighted holomorphic norm on a shrinking time domain. Its finite-norm space consists of holomorphic functions on with zero initial value; the apparent quotient at is interpreted by a limit. Completeness follows because convergence in this norm implies locally uniform convergence of holomorphic functions, including near , and the limiting pointwise bounds give convergence in the norm.
Here is the explicit contraction estimate on a shrinking holomorphic domain. Write , , , and choose
Then and . The whole auxiliary polydisc lies inside , and its supremum of is at most . Consequently
Thus . Choose . The source is bounded on the closed polydisc, say by , and . Therefore maps the Banach space into itself and is a strict contraction mapping. The Banach fixed-point theorem gives a holomorphic fixed point with . Differentiating the integral identity yields , establishing this case of the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem.
Finally, near each real initial point, a real analytic function has a holomorphic extension . Apply the same construction to with and source , restricting the discs if necessary. This gives a local real analytic function of with the prescribed initial value. Equivalently the solution is wherever the extension is defined.
For the first-order Cauchy-Riemann operator, the equation admits the entire functions . Every fixed-order derivative of the initial data converges uniformly to zero, since . Nevertheless for each . Thus even convergence of all initial derivatives does not give continuous dependence on initial data away from the initial line. Analytic existence and smooth-data stability are different properties.