Mittag–Leffler's function, Vekua transform and an inverse obstacle scattering problem

Abstract

This paper studies a prototype of inverse obstacle scattering problems whose governing equation is the Helmholtz equation in two dimensions. An explicit method to extract information about the location and shape of unknown obstacles from the far-field operator with a fixed wave number is given. The method is based on an explicit construction of a modification of Mittag–Leffler's function via the Vekua transform and the study of the asymptotic behaviour; an explicit density in the Herglotz wavefunction that approximates the modification of Mittag–Leffler's function in the bounded domain surrounding unknown obstacles; a system of inequalities derived from Kirsch's factorization formula of the far-field operator. Then an indicator function which can be calculated from the far-field operator acting on the density is introduced. It is shown that the asymptotic behaviour of the indicator function yields information about the visible part of the exterior of the obstacles.