Strong Boundary Values, Analytic Functionals, and Nonlinear Paley-Wiener Theory

We introduce a notion of boundary values for functions along real analytic boundaries, without any restriction on the growth of the functions. Our definition does not depend on having the functions satisfy a differential equation, but it covers the classical case of non-characteristic boundaries. These boundary values are analytic functionals or, in the local setting, hyperfunctions. We give a characterization of nonconvex carriers of analytic functionals, in the spirit of the Paley-Wiener-Martineau theory for convex carriers. Our treatment gives a new approach even to the classical Paley-Wiener theorem. The result applies to the study of analytic families of analytic functionals. The paper is mostly self contained. It starts with an exposition of the basic theory of analytic functionals and hyperfunctions, always using the most direct arguments that we have found. Detailed examples are discussed.