The Cauchy problem for a linear parabolic partial differential equation

Numerical approximation of the solution of the Cauchy problem for the linear parabolic partial differential equation is considered. The problem: (p(x)u_x)_x ? q(x)u = p(x)u_t, 0 < x < 1,0 < t? T; $\text{u(0, t) = ?}{}_1\text{(t), 0 < t ? T}$; $\text{u(1,t) = ?}{}_2\text{(t), 0 < t ? T}$; p(0) u_x(0, t) = g(t), 0 < t₀ ? t ? T, is ill-posed in the sense of Hadamard. Complex variable and Dirichlet series techniques are used to establish Hölder continuous dependence of the solution upon the data under the additional assumption of a known uniform bound for ¦ u(x, t)¦ when 0 ? x ? 1 and 0 ? t ? T. Numerical results are obtained for the problem where the data ?₁, ?₂ and g are known only approximately.