Noniterative analytical formula for inverse scattering of multiply scattering point targets

Abstract

This paper derives, in the exact framework of multiple scattering theory for point targets, a noniterative analytical formula for the nonlinear inversion of the target scattering strengths from the scattering or response matrix that can be applied after the target positions have been estimated in a previous step via, e.g., time-reversal multiple signal classification or another approach. The new formula provides a noniterative analytical alternative to the iterative numerical solution approach for the same problem presented in a recent paper [A. J. Devaney, E. A. Marengo, and F. K. Gruber, "Time-reversal-based imaging and inverse scattering of multiply scattering point targets," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118, 3129-3138 (2005)]. The two methods (noniterative versus iterative) are comparatively investigated with two numerical examples.