  We extend deconvolution in a periodic setting to deal with functional data.
The resulting functional deconvolution model can be viewed as a generalization
of a multitude of inverse problems in mathematical physics where one needs to
recover initial or boundary conditions on the basis of observations from a
noisy solution of a partial differential equation. In the case when it is
observed at a finite number of distinct points, the proposed functional
deconvolution model can also be viewed as a multichannel deconvolution model.
We derive minimax lower bounds for the $L^2$-risk in the proposed functional
deconvolution model when $f(\cdot)$ is assumed to belong to a Besov ball and
the blurring function is assumed to possess some smoothness properties,
including both regular-smooth and super-smooth convolutions. Furthermore, we
propose an adaptive wavelet estimator of $f(\cdot)$ that is asymptotically
optimal (in the minimax sense), or near-optimal within a logarithmic factor, in
a wide range of Besov balls. In addition, we consider a discretization of the
proposed functional deconvolution model and investigate when the availability
of continuous data gives advantages over observations at the asymptotically
large number of points. As an illustration, we discuss particular examples for
both continuous and discrete settings.
