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For Noncharacteristic Cauchy data parameterized by $t\ge 0$, the method of characteristics produces a surface $\Phi (s,t)=(x,y,z)$. The part uniquely fixed as a classical graph through the data must retain both the allowed footpoint range and a nonsingular branch of the projected map. On a branch where inversion gives $(s(x,y),t(x,y))$, require $t(x,y)\ge 0$, together with the branch condition and a nonzero Jacobian determinant. The strict inequality $t>0$ describes its open interior; the endpoint characteristic $t=0$ supplies a boundary trace. A fold caustic can supply another boundary.

An algebraic formula obtained by eliminating $s,t$ can extend beyond this domain of dependence. Its values there need not be selected by the original data, because their characteristic footpoints can lie on the unprescribed half of the data curve. Tracking the parameter range is therefore part of the uniqueness argument, separately from selecting a real square-root branch.

For the first-order partial differential equation $a(x,y,z)z_x+b(x,y,z)z_y=c(x,y,z)$, a lifted characteristic curve satisfies $(x^{\prime },y^{\prime },z^{\prime })=(a,b,c)$. Its characteristic projection is the image $(x(s),y(s))$ in the plane of independent variables. The projection need not be a regular curve: if $a=b=0$, it can be stationary while $z$ varies. In that situation the lifted curve cannot lie in the graph of a single-valued classical solution unless the required compatibility holds. Noncharacteristic Cauchy data require the tangent to the initial curve and the projected characteristic vector to be linearly independent.

For a quasilinear partial differential equation, the characteristic equations for a quasilinear equation are the ordinary differential equationsA solution surface is locally a differentiable graph $z=u(x,y)$ whose tangent plane contains the vector $(P,Q,R)$ at every point. Its normal is $(-u_x,-u_y,1)$, so the tangency condition is precisely $P{u}_x+Q{u}_y=R$. Thus every characteristic lying on that graph follows the vector field without leaving the graph.

Parameterize the given initial curve by $\gamma (t)=(x_0(t),y_0(t),z_0(t))$. For each $t$, solve the characteristic equations for a quasilinear equation with initial value $\gamma (t)$ at $s=0$. The resulting map $(s,t)\mapsto (x(s,t),y(s,t),z(s,t))$ sweeps out a candidate solution surface. If the coefficients and initial data are continuously differentiable, the Picard-Lindelöf theorem supplies this local family. To make it a graph we also need the projection $(s,t)\mapsto (x,y)$ to be locally invertible. At $s=0$ its Jacobian determinant isThe Noncharacteristic Cauchy data condition is $J(0,t)\ne 0$. The inverse function theorem then gives $s=s(x,y)$ and $t=t(x,y)$, and hence $u(x,y)=z(s(x,y),t(x,y))$. Its derivatives obey the PDE by the chain rule. The same characteristic initial-value uniqueness gives local uniqueness of this solution wherever the projection remains invertible and the relevant characteristic meets the prescribed data.

Parametrize the initial curve by $(x_0(r),y_0(r))=(1,r)$, $-1\le r\le 1$. Its tangent is $(0,1)$, whereas the projected characteristic vector field there is $(1,2r+\beta )$. The determinantproves that these are Noncharacteristic Cauchy data: the initial curve is everywhere transverse to the characteristic curves.

There is a regularity qualification. The prescribed function $g(r)=\min \{r,0\}$ is continuous and Lipschitz continuous, but is not differentiable at $r=0$. Thus the data are Cauchy in this geometric sense, with data given by a smooth function on each of $r<0$ and $r>0$; the usual theorem giving a global classical solution from continuously differentiable data does not apply across $r=0$.

For $\beta =1$, $q=(y+x-x^2)/x^2$. On the two sides of the corner-carrying characteristic curve, the partial derivative isAt every point $(x,x^2-x)$ with $x>0$, the two one-sided partial derivatives are $x^{-2}$ and $0$. Therefore $u_y$ does not exist on this curve; its piecewise values have a jump discontinuity of magnitude $x^{-2}$. There are no other interior discontinuities. The values on the outer boundaries are interpreted from within ${\mathcal{D}}_1$.

This is exactly propagation of a derivative jump along a characteristic. Already on $x=1$, the data have slopes $1$ and $0$ on the two sides of $y=0$. The transport equation transports this corner along the characteristic curve from $(1,0)$, which is $y=x^2-x$; it provides no smoothing. This is consistent with Noncharacteristic Cauchy data and does not contradict the smooth-data theorem, whose differentiability hypothesis fails here.

Parametrize the data by $(\xi ,\eta ,\zeta )=(\cos \theta ,\sin \theta ,-1)$. The determinant testing Noncharacteristic Cauchy data isThus the open upper and lower semicircles are noncharacteristic, but the entire circle is not a valid noncharacteristic data curve: the determinant vanishes at $(1,0)$ and $(-1,0)$.

There is a stronger obstruction at those two points. On $y=0$, the differential equation forces $0=-z^4/3$, and hence $z=0$. This contradicts the prescribed value $z=-1$ at both endpoints. ThereforeThe obstruction is already present if the equation is imposed next to the circle and the solution and its first partial derivatives extend continuously to it.

Away from the endpoints, the characteristic projections are radial half-lines:For $\sin \theta >0$, $r$ increases with $s$; for $\sin \theta <0$, $r$ decreases with $s$. Each projection meets its own open semicircle exactly once and never crosses $y=0$. The endpoint projections themselves are single stationary points, although their lifted characteristic curves have varying height.

For the Cauchy problem for a partial differential equation, suppose $a,b,c$ are $C^1$ near the lifted initial data, $\Gamma$ has a regular $C^1$ parametrization $(\xi (s),\eta (s))$, and the initial function $u_0(s)$ is $C^1$. The local existence and uniqueness theorem requires the Noncharacteristic Cauchy data conditionat the starting point. Then there is a neighbourhood of that point carrying a unique $C^1$ classical solution attaining the initial values.

The method of characteristics proves this by solvingwith initial values $(\xi (s),\eta (s),u_0(s))$ at $\tau =0$. Local existence for these ordinary differential equations gives a $C^1$ map. The noncharacteristic determinant is, up to sign, the Jacobian determinant of $(s,\tau )\mapsto (x_1,x_2)$ initially. The inverse function theorem makes this map locally invertible, defining $u(x_1,x_2)=U(s,\tau )$ and proving uniqueness along characteristics.