An algebraic foundation for factoring linear boundary problems

Motivated by boundary problems for linear differential equations, we define an abstract boundary problem as a pair consisting of a surjective linear map (“differential operator”) and an orthogonally closed subspace of the dual space (“boundary conditions”). Defining the composition of boundary problems corresponding to their Green’s operators in reverse order, we characterize and construct all factorizations of a boundary problem from a given factorization of the defining operator. For the case of ordinary differential equations, the main results can be made algorithmic. We conclude with a factorization of a boundary problem for the wave equation.