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Consider an analytic quasilinear partial differential equationLet the analytic initial hypersurface be $\Gamma =\{\varphi =0\}$ and prescribe $u=u_0$ and one transverse derivative ${\partial }_{N}u=u_1$ on $\Gamma$. The tangential derivatives of $u_0$ together with $u_1$ determine the full first jet $Du$ on $\Gamma$. The hypersurface is non-characteristic at $x_0$ with respect to these data whenThis is precisely the principal symbol of a partial differential equation evaluated on the conormal $d\varphi (x_0)$.

The Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem then gives a unique real-analytic solution near $x_0$. In coordinates flattening $\Gamma$ to $x_n=0$, non-characteristicity lets the equation solve analytically for ${\partial }_n^{2}u$, after which the analytic equation and the two initial jets determine every higher Taylor coefficient.

Write the flux asAfter expanding the divergence, the principal symbol of a partial differential equation along a candidate solution $u$ is determined byOnly the symmetric part $A_s=(A+A^T)/2$ contributes to $A^{ik}{D}_{ik}u$. The problem is elliptic along $u$ when ${\xi }^T{A}_s\xi \ge 0$ for every $\xi$, and it is strictly elliptic where this quantity is positive for every nonzero $\xi$. It is uniformly elliptic on a set when constants $0<\lambda \le \Lambda <\infty$, independent of the point, satisfyThese definitions separate pointwise positive definiteness from a quantitative lower and upper bound; a degenerate elliptic operator may lose strict ellipticity at some jets.