We revisit in L2-spaces the autoconvolution equation x ∗ x = y with solutions which are real-valued or complex-valued functions x(t) defined on a finite real interval, say t ∈ [0,1]. Such operator equations of quadratic type occur in physics of spectra, in optics and in stochastics, often as part of a more complex task. Because of their weak nonlinearity deautoconvolution problems are not seen as difficult and hence little attention is paid to them wrongly. In this paper, we will indicate on the example of autoconvolution a deficit in low order convergence rates for regularized solutions of nonlinear ill-posed operator equations F(x)=y with solutions x† in a Hilbert space setting. So for the real-valued version of the deautoconvolution problem, which is locally ill-posed everywhere, the classical convergence rate theory developed for the Tikhonov regularization of nonlinear ill-posed problems reaches its limits if standard source conditions using the range of F (x† )∗ fail. On the other hand, convergence rate results based on Hölder source conditions with small Hölder exponent and logarithmic source conditions or on the method of approximate source conditions are not applicable since qualified nonlinearity conditions are required which cannot be shown for the autoconvolution case according to current knowledge. We also discuss the complex-valued version of autoconvolution with full data on [0,2] and see that ill-posedness must be expected if unbounded amplitude functions are admissible. As a new detail, we present situations of local well-posedness if the domain of the autoconvolution operator is restricted to complex L2-functions with a fixed and uniformly bounded modulus function.

Tikhonov-type regularization of linear and nonlinear ill-posed problems in abstract spaces under sparsity constraints gained relevant attention in the past years. Since under some weak assumptions all regularized solutions are sparse if the l1-norm is used as penalty term, the l1-regularization was studied by numerous authors although the non-reflexivity of the Banach space l1 and the fact that such penalty functional is not strictly convex lead to serious difficulties. We consider the case that the sparsity assumption is narrowly missed. This means that the solutions may have an infinite number of nonzero but fast decaying components. For that case we formulate and prove convergence rates results for the l1-regularization of nonlinear operator equations. In this context, we outline the situations of Hölder rates and of an exponential decay of the solution components.