arXiv subjects

Gunther Uhlmann

Publications and source records attributed to Gunther Uhlmann.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Recovery of material parameters in transversely isotropic media

In this paper we show that in anisotropic elasticity, in the particular case of transversely isotropic media, under appropriate convexity conditions, knowledge of the qSH wave travel times determines the tilt of the axis of isotropy as well as some of the elastic material parameters, and the knowledge of qP and qSV travel times conditionally determines a subset of the remaining parameters, in the sense if some of the remaining parameters are known, the rest are determined, or if the remaining parameters satisfy a suitable relation, they are all determined, under certain non-degeneracy conditions. Furthermore, we give a precise description of the additional issues, which are a subject of ongoing work, that need to be resolved for a full treatment.

math.AP↗

arXiv2019

Recovery of discontinuous Lamé parameters from local dynamic boundary data

Consider an isotropic elastic medium $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^3$ whose Lamé parameters are piecewise smooth. In the elastic wave initial value inverse problem, we are given the solution operator for the elastic wave equation, but only outside $Ω$ and only for initial data supported outside $Ω$. Using the recently introduced scattering control series in the acoustic case, we prove that piecewise smooth Lamé parameters are uniquely determined by this map under certain geometric conditions. We also show the extent that multiple scattering in the interior may be suppressed and eliminated with access to only this partial solution map, which is akin to the dynamic Dirichlet-to-Neumann map.

math.AP↗

arXiv2019

Lens rigidity for a particle in a Yang-Mills field

We consider the motion of a classical colored spinless particle under the influence of an external Yang-Mills potential $A$ on a compact manifold with boundary of dimension $\geq 3$. We show that under suitable convexity assumptions, we can recover the potential $A$, up to gauge transformations, from the lens data of the system, namely, scattering data plus travel times between boundary points.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

Convolutional neural networks in phase space and inverse problems

We study inverse problems consisting on determining medium properties using the responses to probing waves from the machine learning point of view. Based on the understanding of propagation of waves and their nonlinear interactions, we construct a deep convolutional neural network in which the parameters are used to classify and reconstruct the coefficients of nonlinear wave equations that model the medium properties. Furthermore, for given approximation accuracy, we obtain the depth and number of units of the network and their quantitative dependence on the complexity of the medium.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

Inverting the local geodesic ray transform of higher rank tensors

Consider a Riemannian manifold in dimension $n\geq 3$ with strictly convex boundary. We prove the local invertibility, up to potential fields, of the geodesic ray transform on tensor fields of rank four near a boundary point. This problem is closely related with elastic \textit{qP}-wave tomography. Under the condition that the manifold can be foliated with a continuous family of strictly convex hypersurfaces, the local invertibility implies a global result. One can straightforwardedly adapt the proof to show similar results for tensor fields of arbitrary rank.

math.DG↗

arXiv2018

Inverse problems for the stationary transport equation in the diffusion scaling

We consider the inverse problem of reconstructing the optical parameters of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) from boundary measurements in the diffusion limit. In the diffusive regime (the Knudsen number $\mathsf{Kn}\ll 1$), the forward problem for the stationary RTE is well approximated by an elliptic equation. However, the connection between the inverse problem for the RTE and the inverse problem for the elliptic equation has not been fully developed. This problem is particularly interesting because the former one is mildly ill-posed , with a Lipschitz type stability estimate, while the latter is well known to be severely ill-posed with a logarithmic type stability estimate. In this paper, we derive stability estimates for the inverse problem for RTE and examine its dependence on $\mathsf{Kn}$. We show that the stability is Lipschitz in all regimes, but the coefficient deteriorates as $e^{\frac{1}{\mathsf{Kn}}}$, making the inverse problem of RTE severely ill-posed when $\mathsf{Kn}$ is small. In this way we connect the two inverse problems. Numerical results agree with the analysis of worsening stability as the Knudsen number gets smaller.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

The Calderón problem for quasilinear elliptic equations

In this paper we show uniqueness of the conductivity for the quasilinear Calderón's inverse problem. The nonlinear conductivity depends, in a nonlinear fashion, of the potential itself and its gradient. Under some structural assumptions on the direct problem, a real-valued conductivity allowing a small analytic continuation to the complex plane induces a unique Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DN) map. The method of proof considers some complex-valued, linear test functions based on a point of the boundary of the domain, and a linearization of the DN map placed at these particular set of solutions.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

Determination of space-time structures from gravitational perturbations

We study inverse problems for the Einstein equations with source fields in a general form. Under a microlocal linearization stability condition, we show that by generating small gravitational perturbations and measuring the responses near a freely falling observer, one can uniquely determine the background Lorentzian metric up to isometries in a region where the gravitational perturbations can travel to and return. We apply the result to two concrete examples when the source fields are scalar fields (i.e. Einstein-scalar field equations) and electromagnetic fields (i.e. Einstein-Maxwell equations).

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

The geodesic X-ray transform with matrix weights

Consider a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension $\geq 3$ with strictly convex boundary, such that the manifold admits a strictly convex function. We show that the attenuated ray transform in the presence of an arbitrary connection and Higgs field is injective modulo the natural obstruction for functions and one-forms. We also show that the connection and the Higgs field are uniquely determined by the scattering relation modulo gauge transformations. The proofs involve a reduction to a local result showing that the geodesic X-ray transform with a matrix weight can be inverted locally near a point of strict convexity at the boundary, and a detailed analysis of layer stripping arguments based on strictly convex exhaustion functions. As a somewhat striking corollary, we show that these integral geometry problems can be solved on strictly convex manifolds of dimension $\geq 3$ having non-negative sectional curvature (similar results were known earlier in negative sectional curvature). We also apply our methods to solve some inverse problems in quantum state tomography and polarization tomography.

math.DG↗

arXiv2018

Scattering Control for the Wave Equation with Unknown Wave Speed

Consider the acoustic wave equation with unknown, not necessarily smooth, wave speed $c$. We propose and study an iterative control procedure that erases the history of a wave field up to a given depth in a medium, without any knowledge of $c$. In the context of seismic or ultrasound imaging, this can be viewed as removing multiple reflections from normal-directed wavefronts.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

Nonlinear interaction of waves in elastodynamics and an inverse problem

We consider nonlinear elastic wave equations generalizing Gol'dberg's five constants model. We analyze the nonlinear interaction of two distorted plane waves and characterize the possible nonlinear responses. Using the boundary measurements of the nonlinear responses, we solve the inverse problem of determining elastic parameters from the displacement-to-traction map.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

Numerical inversion of 3D geodesic X-ray transform arising from traveltime tomography

In this paper, we consider the inverse problem of determining an unknown function defined in three space dimensions from its geodesic X-ray transform. The standard X-ray transform is defined on the Euclidean metric and is given by the integration of a function along straight lines. The geodesic X-ray transform is the generalization of the standard X-ray transform in Riemannian manifolds and is defined by integration of a function along geodesics. This paper is motivated by Uhlmann and Vasy's theoretical reconstruction algorithm for geodesic X-ray transform and mathematical formulation for traveltime tomography to develop a novel numerical algorithm for the stated goal. Our numerical scheme is based on a Neumann series approximation and a layer stripping approach. In particular, we will first reconstruct the unknown function by using a convergent Neumann series for each small neighborhood near the boundary. Once the solution is constructed on a layer near the boundary, we repeat the same procedure for the next layer, and continue this process until the unknown function is recovered on the whole domain. One main advantage of our approach is that the reconstruction is localized, and is therefore very efficient, compared with other global approaches for which the reconstructions are performed on the whole domain. We illustrate the performance of our method by showing some test cases including the Marmousi model. Finally, we apply this method to a travel time tomography in 3D, in which the inversion of the geodesic X-ray transform is one important step, and present several numerical results to validate the scheme.

math.NA↗

arXiv2018

Reconstruction of piecewise smooth wave speeds using multiple scattering

Let $c$ be a piecewise smooth wave speed on $\mathbb R^n$, unknown inside a domain $Ω$. We are given the solution operator for the scalar wave equation $(\partial_t^2-c^2Δ)u=0$, but only outside $Ω$ and only for initial data supported outside $Ω$. Using our recently developed scattering control method, we prove that piecewise smooth wave speeds are uniquely determined by this map, and provide a reconstruction formula. In other words, the wave imaging problem is solvable in the piecewise smooth setting under mild conditions. We also illustrate a separate method, likewise constructive, for recovering the locations of interfaces in broken geodesic normal coordinates using scattering control.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

Inverse problem for Einstein-scalar field equations

The paper introduces a method to solve inverse problems for hyperbolic systems where the leading order terms are non-linear. We apply the method to the coupled Einstein-scalar field equations and study the question whether the structure of spacetime can be determined by making active measurements near the world line of an observer. We show that such measurements determine the topological, differential and conformal structure of the spacetime in the optimal chronological diamond type set containing the world line. In the case when the unknown part of the spacetime is vacuum, we can also determine the metric itself. We exploit the non-linearity of the equation to obtain a rich set of propagating singularities, produced by a non-linear interaction of singularities that propagate initially as for linear wave equations. This non-linear effect is then used as a tool to solve the inverse problem for the non-linear system. The method works even in cases where the corresponding inverse problems for linear equations remain open, and it can potentially be applied to a large class of inverse problems for non-linear hyperbolic equations encountered in practical imaging problems.

math.AP↗

arXiv2017

Quantitative analysis of metal artifacts in X-ray tomography

In X-ray CT scan with metallic objects, it is known that direct application of the filtered back-projection (FBP) formula leads to streaking artifacts in the reconstruction. These are characterized mathematically in terms of wave front sets in [13]. In this work, we give a quantitative microlocal analysis of such artifacts. We consider metal regions with strictly convex smooth boundaries and show that the streaking artifacts are conormal distributions to straight lines tangential to at least two boundary curves. For metal regions with piecewise smooth boundaries, we analyze the streaking artifacts especially due to the corner points. Finally, we study the reduction of the artifacts using appropriate filters.

math.AP↗

arXiv2017

Nonlinear responses from the interaction of two progressing waves at an interface

For scalar semilinear wave equations, we analyze the interaction of two (distorted) plane waves at an interface between media of different nonlinear properties. We show that new waves are generated from the nonlinear interactions, which might be responsible for the observed nonlinear effects in applications. Also, we show that the incident waves and the nonlinear responses determine the location of the interface and some information of the nonlinear properties of the media. In particular, for the case of a jump discontinuity at the interface, we can determine the magnitude of the jump.

math.AP↗

arXiv2017

On an inverse boundary problem arising in brain imaging

We consider the inverse problem of recovering both an unknown electric current and the surrounding electromagnetic parameters of a medium from boundary measurements. This inverse problem arises in brain imaging. We show that under generic conditions one can recover both the source and the electromagnetic parameters if these are piecewise constant and the current source is invariant in a fixed direction or a harmonic function.

math.AP↗

arXiv2017

An inverse problem from condense matter physics

We consider the problem of reconstructing the features of a weak anisotropic background potential by the trajectories of vortex dipoles in a nonlinear Gross-Pitaevskii equation. At leading order, the dynamics of vortex dipoles are given by a Hamiltonian system. If the background potential is sufficiently smooth and flat, the background can be reconstructed using ideas from the boundary and the lens rigidity problems. We prove that reconstructions are unique, derive an approximate reconstruction formula, and present numerical examples.

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