Reconstruction of space-dependent potential and/or damping coefficients in the wave equation

Abstract

In this paper, nonlinear reconstructions of the space-dependent potential and/or damping coefficients in the wave equation from Cauchy data boundary measurements of the displacement and the flux tension are investigated. This is a very interesting and challenging nonlinear inverse coefficient problem with important applications in wave propagation phenomena. The uniqueness and stability results that are revised and in some cases proved demonstrate an advancement in understanding the stability of the inverse coefficient problems. However, in practice, the inverse coefficient identification problems under investigation are still ill-posed since small random errors in the input data cause large errors in the output solution. In order to stabilize the solution we employ the nonlinear Tikhonov regularization method. Numerical reconstructions performed for the first time are presented and discussed to illustrate the accuracy and stability of the numerical solutions under finite difference mesh refinement and noise in the measured data.