This paper gives a partial answer to a problem raised by Griffiths in [4], which is a kind of converse of Abel’s theorem.

It is shown that if a function$u$satisfies a backward parabolic inequality in an open set Ω∉$R$^{$n$+1}and vanishes to infinite order at a point ($x$_{0}·$t$_{0}) in Ω, then$u(x, t$_{0})=0 for all$x$in the connected component of$x$_{0}in Ω⌢($R$^{$n$}×{$t$_{0}}).

We prove several new results on the absolutely continuous spectra of perturbed one-dimensional Stark operators. First, we find new classes of perturbations, characterized mainly by smoothness conditions, which preserve purely absolutely continuous spectrum. Then we establish stability of the absolutely continuous spectrum in more general situations, where imbedded singular spectrum may occur. We present two kinds of optimal conditions for the stability of absolutely continuous spectrum: decay and smoothness. In the decay direction, we show that a sufficient (in the power scale) condition is |$q$($x$)|≤$C$(1+|$x$|)^{−1/4−ε}; in the smoothness direction, a sufficient condition in Hölder classes is$q$∈$C$^{1/2+ε}($R$). On the other hand, we show that there exist potentials which both satisfy |$q$($x$)|≤$C$(1+|$x$|)^{−1/4}and belong to$C$^{1/2}($R$) for which the spectrum becomes purely singular on the whole real axis, so that the above results are optimal within the scales considered.

We study the Möbius invariant spaces$Q$_{$p$}and$Q$_{$p, 0$}of analytic functions. These scales of spaces include BMOA=$Q$_{1}, VMOA=$Q$_{1, 0}and the Dirichlet space=$Q$_{0}. Using the Bergman metric, we establish decomposition theorems for these spaces. We obtain also a fractional derivative characterization for both$Q$_{$p$}and$Q$_{$p, 0$}.

A Sobolev space in several variables in an$L$^{1}-type norm is not complemented in its second dual. Hence it is not isomorphic as a Banach space to any complemented subspace of a Banach lattice.