Reconstruction of isotropic conductivities from non smooth electric fields

Abstract

In this paper we study the isotropic realizability of a given non smooth gradient field ∇u defined in ℝd, namely when one can reconstruct an isotropic conductivity σ > 0 such that σ∇u is divergence free in ℝd. On the one hand, in the case where ∇u is non-vanishing, uniformly continuous in ℝd and Δu is a bounded function in ℝd, we prove the isotropic realizability of ∇u using the associated gradient flow combined with the DiPerna, Lions approach for solving ordinary differential equations in suitable Sobolev spaces. On the other hand, in the case where ∇u is piecewise regular, we prove roughly speaking that the isotropic realizability holds if and only if the normal derivatives of u on each side of the gradient discontinuity interfaces have the same sign. Some examples of conductivity reconstruction are given.