Approximate Solutions to the Discontinuous Riemann-Hilbert Problem of Elliptic Systems of First Order Complex Equations ()
1. Introduction
Let
be an
-connected bounded domain in
with the boundary
. Without loss of generality, we assume that
is a circular domain in
, bounded by the
-circles
and
. In this article, the notations are the same as in references [1] -[12] . If the first order elliptic system with
unknown real functions
(1.1)
satisfies certain conditions, then (1.1) can be transformed into the complex form
(1.2)
where
(see Section 4, Chapter 2 in [5] ). Its vector form is as follows:
(1.3)
where
is the transposed matrix of
. We discuss the first order complex system (1.3) in the form
(1.4)
in which
with
,
with
with

We assume (1.4) satisfies the following conditions:
Condition C 1)
are continuous in
for almost every point 
2) The above functions are measurable in
for all systems of continuous functions
in
and any systems of measurable functions
in
and satisfy
(1.5)
(1.6)
where
is as stated in (1.8) below,
and
are non-negative constants.
3) The complex system (1.4) satisfies the following ellipticity condition
(1.7)
where
are non-negative constants.
For convenience,
and
are used to indicate
and
respectively,
and we define the following:

in which
and
are stated as in (1.12), (2.1) below, and
and
are non-negative constants.
The so-called Riemann-Hilbert boundary value problem for the complex system (1.4) may be formulated as follows.
Problem A Find a system of continuous solutions
in
of (1.4), which satisfies the boundary condition
(1.8)
in which
with
for
and
are the first kind of discontinuous points of
on
.
Denote by
and
the left limit and right limit of
as
on
, and
(1.9)
where
when
, and
when
. There is no harm in assuming that the partial indexes
of
on
are not integers, and the partial indexes
of
on
are integers. Set
(1.10)
and we call
the index of Problem A.
For problem A, we will assume
satisfy the conditions
(1.11)
in which
is an open arc from the point
to
on
are non-negative constants,
. Moreover, we require that the solution
possess the property
(1.12)
in
, where
in
and
are small positive constants.
In general, Problem A may not be solvable. Hence we propose a modified problem as follows.
Problem B Find a system of continuous solutions
of the complex equation (1.4) in
, which satisfies the modified boundary condition
(1.13)
Here
(1.14)
in which
are unknown real constants to be determined appropriately, and
, if
is an odd integer. More description on
and
are given below. We begin with the following function

where
denotes the partial index on
,
are fixed pointswhich are not the discontinuous points from
. Note that the positive direction applies to the boundary circles
. Similarly to (1.7)-(1.12), Chapter V, [2] , we see that

Clearly, with certain modification on the symbols on some arcs on
,
on
is seen to be continuous. In this case, its index

are integers. And we have the following:

in which
are solutions of the modified Dirichlet problems with the above boundary conditions for analytic functions,
are real constants, and
.
In addition, we may assume that the solution
satisfies the following point conditions
(1.15)
where
are distinct points, and
are all real constants satisfying the conditions
(1.16)
for a positive constant
. Problem B with
in
,
on
and
is called Problem
.
If
then Problem B for (1.4) is the modified Dirichlet boundary value problem for (1.4). It is easy to see that the solutions of (1.4) include the generalized hyperanalytic functions as special cases. In fact, if (1.4) is linear, and
and
then the solutions of (1.4) are called generalized hyperanalytic functions.
2. Parameter Extension Method of the Discontinuous Riemann-Hilbert Problem for Elliptic Systems of First Order Complex Equations
We begin with the following estimates of the solution for problem B.
Theorem 2.1 Suppose that the complex system (1.4) satisfies Condition C and the constants
in
(1.6), (1.7), (1.11) are small enough. Then any solution
of Problem B for (1.4) satisfies the estimate
(2.1)
where
with
in
, 

with
are non-negative constants.
Proof There is no harm in assuming that
Let
It can be seen that
is a solution of the following boundary value problem
(2.2)
(2.3)
(2.4)
in which
(2.5)
Following the proof of the Theorem 2.1 of Chapter VI in [1] , we can derive the estimate
(2.6)
From the above estimate, it immediately follows that the estimate (2.1) is true.
In addition, we assume that (1.4) satisfies the following condition: For any continuous vectors
and any measurable vector 
(2.7)
where
satisfy the condition
(2.8)
in which
are non-negative constants.
Now, we prove that there exists a unique solution of the modified Riemann-Hilbert problem (Problem B) for analytic vectors by the parameter extensional method.
Theorem 2.2 Let
in (1.11) be a sufficiently small positive constant. Then Problem B for analytic vectors has a solution.
Proof We consider the modified Riemann-Hilbert problem (Problem
) for analytic vectors with the boundary conditions
(2.9)
(2.10)
where

in which
is a real parameter, and
is any vector of real functions,
and
is any vector of constants. When
, it is clear that Problem
for analytic vectors has a unique solution (see [1] ). If Problem
with
for analytic vectors is solvable, we shall prove that there exists a positive number
independent of
, such that Problem
for every
has a unique solution. In fact, the boundary conditions (2.9), (2.10) can be rewritten in the form
(2.11)
(2.12)
Substituting the zero vector
into the position of
on the right hand side of (2.11) and (2.12), by the hypothesis, the boundary value problem (2.11), (2.12) for analytic vectors has a unique solution
and
Using the successive iterationwe can find a sequence
of analytic vectors, which satisfies the boundary conditions
(2.13)
(2.14)
From (2.13) and (2.14), we have
(2.15)
(2.16)
In accordance with Theorem 2.1, we can conclude
(2.17)
where
with
, and
Choosing a positive constant
, such that
it is not difficult to see that

and

for
where
is a positive integer. This shows that

Hence, there exists an analytic vector
such that
(2.18)
Thus
is a solution of Problem
with
. From this we can derive that Problem
with
i.e. Problem B for analytic vectors is solvable.
Next we prove the solvability of Problem B for the system (1.4).
Theorem 2.3 Let the nonlinear elliptic system (1.4) satisfy Condition C, and
in (1.6), (1.7), (1.11) be sufficiently small positive constants. Then Problem B for the complex system (1.4) is solvable.
Proof We consider the nonlinear elliptic complex system with the parameter
:
(2.19)
where
is any measurable vector in
and
Applying Theorem 2.2, we see that Problem B for (2.19) with
is solvable, and the solution
can be expressed as
(2.20)
where
is an analytic vector satisfying the boundary conditions
(2.21)
(2.22)
Suppose that when
, Problem B for the system (2.19) has a unique solution. Then we shall prove that there exists a neighborhood of
so that for every
and any function
Problem B for (2.19) is solvable. In fact, the complex system (2.19) can be written in the form
(2.23)
Suppose that Problem B for (2.13) with
is solvable, by using the similar method as in the proof of Theorem 2.2, we can find a positive constant
, so that for every
, there exists a sequence
of solutions satisfying
(2.24)
The difference of the above equations for
and
is as follows:
(2.25)
From Condition C, we can derive that

and

Moreover,
satisfies the homogeneous boundary conditions
(2.26)
(2.27)
Similarly to Theorem 3.3, Chapter I, [1] , we have
(2.28)
where
are positive constants. Provided
is small enough, so that
we can obtain
(2.29)
for every
Thus

for
where
is a positive integer. This shows that
as
Thus there exists a system of continuous functions
in
, such that

By Condition C, it follows that
is a solution of Problem B for the system (2.23), i.e. (2.19) for
. It is easy to see that the positive constant
is independent of
. Hence Problem B for the system (2.19) with
is solvable. Correspondingly we can derive that when
, Problem B for (2.19) is solvable. Especially Problem B for (2.19) with
and
, namely Problem B for the system (1.4) has a solution.
3. Error Estimates of Approximate Solutions of the Discontinuous Riemann Hilbert Problem for Elliptic Systems of First Order Complex Equations
In this section, we shall introduce an error estimate of the above approximate solutions.
Theorem 3.1 Under the same conditions as in Theorem 2.3, let
be a solution of Problem B for the complex system (1.4) satisfying Condition C in
, and
be its approximation as stated in the proof of Theorem 2.3 with
Then we have the following error estimate
(3.1)
where
with
as in (2.28), and
as in (1.6),(1.7), (1.11) and (1.16).
Proof From (1.4) and (2.24) with
, we have
(3.2)
It is clear that
satisfies the homogeneous boundary conditions
(3.3)
Noting that
satisfy
, and

and then
is a solution of Problem
for the complex equation
(3.4)
hence we have
(3.5)
in which
(3.6)
where the non-negative constants
are as stated in (2.28), (1.5), (1.11) and (1.12). Moreover according to the proof of Theorem 2.3, we can derive
(3.7)
From (3.6) and (3.7), it follows that

where
and
is the solution of Problem B for (2.24) with
and
Finally, we obtain
(3.8)
This shows that (3.1) holds. If the positive constant
is small enough, so that when
is sufficiently large and
is close to 1, then the right hand side becomes very small.
Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Department of Defense.
NOTES
*Deceased.
#I am very grateful for the guidance and help of Professor Guochun Wen, who served as my adviser for many years. 1 will always remember him because he inf1uenced me greatly.