Time Reversal and Refocusing in Random Media

Abstract

In time reversal acoustics experiments, a signal is emitted from a localized source, recorded at an array of receivers, time reversed, and finally reemitted into the medium. A celebrated feature of time reversal experiments is that the refocusing of the reemitted signals at the location of the initial source is improved when the medium is heterogeneous. Contrary to intuition, multiple scattering enhances the spatial resolution of the refocused signal and allows one to beat the diffraction limit obtained in homogeneous media. This paper presents a quantitative explanation of time reversal and other more general refocusing phenomena for general classical waves in heterogeneous media. The theory is based on the asymptotic analysis of the Wigner transform of wave fields in the high frequency limit. Numerical experiments complement the theory.