arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Gunther Uhlmann.
We consider an inverse problem arising in nonlinear ultrasound imaging. The propagation of ultrasound waves is modeled by a quasilinear wave equation. We make measurements at the boundary of the medium encoded in the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map, and we show that these measurements determine the nonlinearity.
We consider the ultrasound imaging problem governed by a nonlinear wave equation of Westervelt type with variable wave speed. We show that the coefficient of nonlinearity can be recovered uniquely from knowledge of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. Our proof is based on a second order linearization and the use of Gaussian beam solutions to reduce the problem to the inversion of a weighted geodesic ray transform. We propose an inversion algorithm and report the results of a numerical implementation to solve the nonlinear ultrasound imaging problem in a transmission setting in the frequency domain.
We study an inverse problem for the fractional Schrödinger equation (FSE) with a local perturbation by a linear partial differential operator (PDO) of order smaller than the order of the fractional Laplacian. We show that one can uniquely recover the coefficients of the PDO from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DN) map associated to the perturbed FSE. This is proved for two classes of coefficients: coefficients which belong to certain spaces of Sobolev multipliers and coefficients which belong to fractional Sobolev spaces with bounded derivatives. Our study generalizes recent results for the zeroth and first order perturbations to higher order perturbations.
We revisit the problem of recovering wave speeds and density across a curved interface from reflected wave amplitudes. Such amplitudes have been exploited for decades in (exploration) seismology in this context. However, the analysis in seismology has been based on linearization and mostly flat interfaces. Here, we present a nonlinear analysis allowing curved interfaces, establish uniqueness and provide a reconstruction, while making the notion of amplitude precise through a procedure rooted in microlocal analysis.
In this paper, we analyze the nonlinear single pixel X-ray transform $K$ and study the reconstruction of $f$ from the measurement $Kf$. Different from the well-known X-ray transform, the transform $K$ is a nonlinear operator and uses a single detector that integrates all rays in the space. We derive stability estimates and an inversion formula of $K$. We also consider the case where we integrate along geodesics of a Riemannian metric. Moreover, we conduct several numerical experiments to corroborate the theoretical results.
In this paper we prove uniqueness in the inverse boundary value problem for the three coefficient functions in the porous medium equation with an absorption term $ε\partial_t u-\nabla\cdot(γ\nabla u^m)+λu^q=0$, with $m>1$, $m^{-1}<q<\sqrt{m}$, with the space dimension 2 or higher. This is a degenerate parabolic type quasilinear PDE which has been used as a model for phenomena in fields such as gas flow (through a porous medium), plasma physics, and population dynamics. In the case when $γ=1$ a priori, we prove unique identifiability with data supported in an arbitrarily small part of the boundary. Even for the global problem we improve on previous work by obtaining uniqueness with a finite (rather than infinite) time of observation and also by introducing the additional absorption term $λu^q$.
It is known that a geometric measurement of the light cones of supernovae determines the conformal class of the visible part of the spacetime. The conformal factor is physically meaningful but cannot be determined geometrically by anything with zero mass, such as the photon. We show that measuring the neutrino cones in addition to light cones completely removes this gauge freedom. We describe the physical model in great detail, including why ultrarelativistic neutrinos are the only option.
In this paper we solve the fractional anisotropic Calderón problem on closed Riemannian manifolds of dimensions two and higher. Specifically, we prove that the knowledge of the local source-to-solution map for the fractional Laplacian, given on an arbitrary small open nonempty a priori known subset of a smooth closed connected Riemannian manifold, determines the Riemannian manifold up to an isometry. This can be viewed as a nonlocal analog of the anisotropic Calderón problem in the setting of closed Riemannian manifolds, which is wide open in dimensions three and higher.
We study the inverse problem of recovering a semilinear diffusion term $a(t,λ)$ as well as a quasilinear convection term $\mathcal B(t,x,λ,ξ)$ in a nonlinear parabolic equation $$\partial_tu-\textrm{div}(a(t,u) \nabla u)+\mathcal B(t,x,u,\nabla u)\cdot\nabla u=0, \quad \mbox{in}\ (0,T)\timesΩ,$$ given the knowledge of the flux of the moving quantity associated with different sources applied at the boundary of the domain. This inverse problem that is modeled by the solution dependent parameters $a$ and $\mathcal B$ has many physical applications related to various classes of cooperative interactions or complex mixing in diffusion processes. Our main result states that, under suitable assumptions, it is possible to fully recover the nonlinear diffusion term $a$ as well as the nonlinear convection term $\mathcal B$. The recovery of the diffusion term is based on the idea of solutions to the linearized equation with singularities near the boundary $\partial Ω$. Our proof of the recovery of the convection term is based on the idea of higher order linearization to reduce the inverse problem to a density property for certain anisotropic products of solutions to the linearized equation. We show this density property by constructing sufficiently smooth geometric optic solutions concentrating on rays in $Ω$.
We study inverse problems for the nonlinear wave equation $\square_g u + w(x,u, \nabla_g u) = 0$ in a Lorentzian manifold $(M,g)$ with boundary, where $\nabla_g u$ denotes the gradient and $w(x,u, ξ)$ is smooth and quadratic in $ξ$. Under appropriate assumptions, we show that the conformal class of the Lorentzian metric $g$ can be recovered up to diffeomorphisms, from the knowledge of the Neumann-to-Dirichlet map. With some additional conditions, we can recover the metric itself up to diffeomorphisms. Moreover, we can recover the second and third quadratic forms in the Taylor expansion of $w(x,u, ξ)$ with respect to $u$ up to null forms.
We show that the knowledge of the Dirichlet--to--Neumann map for a nonlinear magnetic Schrödinger operator on the boundary of a compact complex manifold, equipped with a Kähler metric and admitting sufficiently many global holomorphic functions, determines the nonlinear magnetic and electric potentials uniquely.
We study the inverse problem of determining the coefficients of the fractional power of a general second order elliptic operator given in the exterior of an open subset of the Euclidean space. We show the problem can be reduced into determining the coefficients from the boundary Cauchy data of the elliptic operator on the open set, the Calderón problem. As a corollary we establish several new results for nonlocal inverse problems by using the corresponding results for the local inverse problems. In particular the isotropic nonlocal Calderón problem can be resolved completely, assuming some regularity assumptions on the coefficients, and the anisotropic Calderón problem modulo an isometry which is the identity at the boundary for real-analytic anisotropic conductivities in dimension greater than two and bounded and measurable anisotropic conductivities in two dimensions.
In this work we study the optimality of increasing stability of the inverse boundary value problem (IBVP) for Schrödinger equation. The rigorous justification of increasing stability for the IBVP for Schrödinger equation were established by Isakov \cite{Isa11} and by Isakov, Nagayasu, Uhlmann, Wang of the paper \cite{INUW14}. In \cite{Isa11}, \cite{INUW14}, the authors showed that the stability of this IBVP increases as the frequency increases in the sense that the stability estimate changes from a logarithmic type to a Hölder type. In this work, we prove that the instability changes from an exponential type to a Hölder type when the frequency increases. This result verifies that results in \cite{Isa11}, \cite{INUW14} are optimal.
In this paper we analyze the local and global boundary rigidity problem for general Riemannian manifolds with boundary $(M,g)$. We show that the boundary distance function, i.e., $d_g|_{\partial M\times\partial M}$, known near a point $p\in \partial M$ at which $\partial M$ is strictly convex, determines $g$ in a suitable neighborhood of $p$ in $M$, up to the natural diffeomorphism invariance of the problem. We also consider the closely related lens rigidity problem which is a more natural formulation if the boundary distance is not realized by unique minimizing geodesics. The lens relation measures the point and the direction of exit from $M$ of geodesics issued from the boundary and the length of the geodesic. The lens rigidity problem is whether we can determine the metric up to isometry from the lens relation. We solve the lens rigidity problem under the assumption that there is a function on $M$ with suitable convexity properties relative to $g$. This can be considered as a complete solution of a problem formulated first by Herglotz in 1905. We also prove a semi-global results given semi-global data. This shows, for instance, that simply connected manifolds with strictly convex boundaries are lens rigid if the sectional curvature is non-positive or non-negative or if there are no focal points. The key tool is the analysis of the geodesic X-ray transform on 2-tensors, corresponding to a metric $g$, in the normal gauge, such as normal coordinates relative to a hypersurface, where one also needs to allow weights. This is handled by refining and extending our earlier results in the solenoidal gauge.
We consider Schrödinger operators at a fixed high frequency on simply connected compact Riemannian manifolds with non-positive sectional curvatures and smooth strictly convex boundaries. We prove that the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map uniquely determines the potential.
We consider the semilinear wave equation $\Box_g u+a u^4=0$, $a\neq 0$, on a Lorentzian manifold $(M,g)$ with timelike boundary. We show that from the knowledge of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map one can recover the metric $g$ and the coefficient $a$ up to natural obstructions. Our proof rests on the analysis of the interaction of distorted plane waves together with a scattering control argument, as well as Gaussian beam solutions.
We prove a global uniqueness result for the Calderón inverse problem for a general quasilinear isotropic conductivity equation on a bounded open set with smooth boundary in dimension $n\ge 3$. Performing higher order linearizations of the nonlinear Dirichlet--to--Neumann map, we reduce the problem of the recovery of the differentials of the quasilinear conductivity, which are symmetric tensors, to a completeness property for certain anisotropic products of solutions to the linearized equation. The completeness property is established using complex geometric optics solutions to the linearized conductivity equation, whose amplitudes concentrate near suitable two dimensional planes.
We consider an inverse boundary value problem for a semilinear wave equation on a time-dependent Lorentzian manifold with time-like boundary. The time-dependent coefficients of the nonlinear terms can be recovered in the interior from the knowledge of the Neumann-to-Dirichlet map. Either distorted plane waves or Gaussian beams can be used to derive uniqueness.