Let $(M,g)$ be a simple Riemannian manifold with boundary and consider the geodesic ray transform of symmetric 2-tensor fields. Let the integral of $f$ along maximal geodesics vanish on an appropriate open subset of the space of geodesics in $M$. Under the assumption that the metric $g$ is real-analytic, it is shown that there exists a vector field $v$ satisfying $f=dv$ on the set of points lying on these geodesics and $v=0$ on the intersection of this set with the boundary $\PD M$ of the manifold $M$. Using this result, a Helgason's type of a support theorem for the geodesic ray transform is proven. The approach is based on analytic microlocal techniques.
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.
We prove the local invertibility, up to potential fields, and stability of the geodesic X-ray transform on tensor fields of order 1 and 2 near a strictly convex boundary point, on manifolds with boundary of dimension n>=3. We also present an inversion formula. Under the condition that the manifold can be foliated with a continuous family of strictly convex surfaces, we prove a global result which also implies a lens rigidity result near such a metric. The class of manifolds satisfying the foliation condition includes manifolds with no focal points, and does not exclude existence of conjugate p…
We consider equitorsion second type almost geodesic mappings of a non-symmetric affine connection space in this article. Using different computational methods, we obtained some invariants of these mappings. Last generalized Thomas projective parameter and Weyl projective tensor as invariants of a second type almost geodesic mapping of a non-symmetric affine connection space are further generalized here.
Given a Riemmanian manifold, we provide a new method to compute a sharp upper bound for the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian for the Dirichlet problem on a geodesic ball of radius less than the injectivity radius of the manifold. This upper bound is obtained by transforming the metric tensor into a rotationally symmetric metric tensor that preserves the area of the geodesic spheres. The provided upper bound can be computed using only the area function of the geodesic spheres contained in the geodesic ball and it is sharp in the sense that the first eigenvalue of geodesic ball coincides with o…
We study the geodesic X-ray transform $I_Γ$ of tensor fields on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ with non-necessarily convex boundary and with possible conjugate points. We assume that $I_Γ$ is known for geodesics belonging to an open set $Γ$ with endpoint on the boundary. We prove generic s-injectivity and a stability estimate under some topological assumptions and under the condition that for any $(x,ξ)\in T^*M$, there is a geodesic without conjugate points in $Γ$ through $x$ normal to $ξ$.
We show that if two 4-dimensional metrics of arbitrary signature on one manifold are geodesically equivalent (i.e., have the same geodesics considered as unparameterized curves) and are solutions of the Einstein field equation with the same stress-energy tensor, then they are affinely equivalent or flat. Under the additional assumption that the metrics are complete or the manifold is closed, the result survives in all dimensions >2.
Let $(M,g)$ be a simple Riemannian manifold. Under the assumption that the metric $g$ is real-analytic, it is shown that if the geodesic ray transform of a function $f\in L^{2}(M)$ vanishes on an appropriate open set of geodesics, then $f=0$ on the set of points lying on these geodesics. The approach is based on a microlocal version of unique continuation of analytic functions.
Under a convexity assumption on the boundary we solve a local inverse problem, namely we show that the geodesic X-ray transform can be inverted locally in a stable manner; one even has a reconstruction formula. We also show that under an assumption on the existence of a global foliation by strictly convex hypersurfaces the geodesic X-ray transform is globally injective. In addition we prove stability estimates and propose a layer stripping type algorithm for reconstruction.
An expansion is developed for the Weil-Petersson Riemann curvature tensor in the thin region of the Teichmüller and moduli spaces. The tensor is evaluated on the gradients of geodesic-lengths for disjoint geodesics. A precise lower bound for sectional curvature in terms of the surface systole is presented. The curvature tensor expansion is applied to establish continuity properties at the frontier strata of the augmented Teichmüller space. The curvature tensor has the asymptotic product structure already observed for the metric and covariant derivative. The product structure is combined with t…
We prove a sharp stability estimate for the problem of reconstructing a symmetric 2-tensor from its integrals along all maximal geodesics on a simple manifold.
We present two range characterizations for the attenuated geodesic X-ray transform defined on pairs of functions and one-forms on simple surfaces. Such characterizations are based on first isolating the range over sums of functions and one-forms, then separating each sub-range in two ways, first by implicit conditions, second by deriving new inversion formulas for sums of functions and one-forms.
We establish an equivalence principle between the solenoidal injectivity of the geodesic ray transform acting on symmetric $m$-tensors and the existence of invariant distributions or smooth first integrals with prescribed projection over the set of solenoidal $m$-tensors. We work with compact simple manifolds, but several of our results apply to non-trapping manifolds with strictly convex boundary.
We study the geodesic X-ray transform $X$ on compact Riemannian surfaces with conjugate points. Regardless of the type of the conjugate points, we show that we cannot recover the singularities and therefore, this transform is always unstable (ill-posed). We describe the microlocal kernel of $X$ and relate it to the conjugate locus. We present numerical examples illustrating the cancellation of singularities. We also show that the attenuated X-ray transform is well posed if the attenuation is positive and there are no more than two conjugate points along each geodesic; but still ill-posed, if t…
This article deals with stability issues related to geodesic X-ray transforms, where an interplay between the (attenuation type) weight in the transform and the underlying geometry strongly impact whether the problem is stable or unstable. In the unstable case, we also explain what types of artifacts are expected in terms of the underlying conjugate points and the microlocal weights at those points. We show in particular that the well-known iterative reconstruction Landweber algorithm cannot provide accurate reconstruction when the problem is unstable, though the artifacts generated, specific …
We derive reconstruction formulas for a family of geodesic ray transforms with connection, defined on simple Riemannian surfaces. Such formulas provide injectivity of such all transforms in a neighbourhood of constant curvature metrics and non-unitary connections with curvature close to zero. If certain Fredholm equations are injective in the absence of connection, then for any smooth enough connection multiplied by a complex parameter, the corresponding transform is injective for all values of that parameter outside a discrete set. Range characterizations are also provided, as well as numeric…
We give a detailed microlocal study of X-ray transforms over geodesics-like families of curves with conjugate points of fold type. We show that the normal operator is the sum of a pseudodifferential operator and a Fourier integral operator. We compute the principal symbol of both operators and the canonical relation associated to the Fourier integral operator. In two dimensions, for the geodesic transform, we show that there is always a cancellation of singularities to some order, and we give an example where that order is infinite; therefore the normal operator is not microlocally invertible …
A symmetric tensor field on a Riemannian manifold is called Killing field if the symmetric part of its covariant derivative is equal to zero. There is a one to one correspondence between Killing tensor fields and first integrals of the geodesic flow which depend polynomially on the velocity. Therefore Killing tensor fields closely relate to the problem of integrability of geodesic flows. In particular, the following question is still open: does there exist a Riemannian metric on the 2-torus which admits an irreducible Killing tensor field of rank $\geq 3$? We obtain two necessary conditions on…
We show that on simple surfaces the geodesic ray transform acting on solenoidal symmetric tensor fields of arbitrary order is injective. This solves a long standing inverse problem in the two-dimensional case.
We consider the geodesic X-ray transform acting on solenoidal tensor fields on a compact simply connected manifold with strictly convex boundary and non-positive curvature. We establish a stability estimate of the form $L^2\mapsto H^{1/2}_{T}$, where the $H^{1/2}_{T}$-space is defined using the natural parametrization of geodesics as initial boundary points and incoming directions (fan-beam geometry); only tangential derivatives at the boundary are used. The proof is based on the Pestov identity with boundary term localized in frequency.
We derive explicit reconstruction formulas for the attenuated geodesic X-ray transform over functions and, in the case of non-vanishing attenuation, vector fields, on a class of simple Riemannian surfaces with boundary. These formulas partly rely on new explicit approaches to construct continuous right-inverses for backprojection operators (and, in turn, holomorphic integrating factors), which were previously unavailable in a systematic form. The reconstruction of functions is presented in two ways, the latter one being motivated by numerical considerations and successfully implemented at the …
In an earlier paper we discussed soldered forms, multivector fields and Riemannian metrics. In particular, we showed that a Riemannian submanifold is totally geodesic iff the metric is soldered to the submanifold. In the present note we discuss general, soldered tensor fields. In particular, we prove that the almost complex structure of an almost Kähler manifold is soldered to a submanifold iff the latter is an invariant, totally geodesic submanifold.
For a compact Riemannian surface with boundary we study attenuated geodesic transform of functions and differential forms. We generalize several known results on uniqueness and stability of this transform dropping condition of absence of conjugate points.
We study invariant Nijenhuis $(1,1)$-tensors on a homogeneous space $G/K$ of a reductive Lie group $G$ from the point of view of integrability of a Hamiltonian system of differential equations with the $G$-invariant Hamiltonian function on the cotangent bundle $T^*(G/K)$. Such a tensor induces an invariant Poisson tensor $Π_1$ on $T^*(G/K)$, which is Poisson compatible with the canonical Poisson tensor $Π_{T^*(G/K)}$. This Poisson pair can be reduced to the space of $G$-invariant functions on $T^*(G/K)$ and produces a family of Poisson commuting $G$-invariant functions. We give, in Lie algebra…
The geodesic ray-tracing method has shown its effectiveness for the reconstruction of fibers in white matter structure. Based on reasonable metrics on the spaces of the diffusion tensors, it can provide multiple solutions and get robust to noise and curvatures of fibers. The choice of the metric on the spaces of diffusion tensors has a significant impact on the outcome of this method. Our objective is to suggest metrics and modifications of the algorithms leading to more satisfactory results in the construction of white matter tracts as geodesics. Starting with the DTI modality, we propose to …
We prove two injectivity theorems for the geodesic ray transform on two-dimensional, complete, simply connected Riemannian manifolds with non-positive Gaussian curvature, also known as Cartan-Hadamard manifolds. The first theorem is concerned with bounded non-positive curvature and the second with decaying non-positive curvature.
In this article we introduce an approach for studying the geodesic X-ray transform and related geometric inverse problems by using Carleman estimates. The main result states that on compact negatively curved manifolds (resp. nonpositively curved simple or Anosov manifolds), the geodesic vector field satisfies a Carleman estimate with logarithmic weights (resp. linear weights) on the frequency side. As a particular consequence, on negatively curved simple manifolds the geodesic X-ray transform with attenuation given by a general connection and Higgs field is invertible modulo natural obstructio…
In this paper we prove that all manifolds with affine connection are globally projectively equivalent to some space with equiaffine connection (equiaffine manifold). These manifolds are characterised by a symmetric Ricci tensor.
Let (M, g) be a simple, real analytic, Riemannian manifold with boundary and of dimension n>=3. In this work, we prove a support theorem for the transverse ray transform of tensor fields of rank 2 defined over such manifolds. More specifically, given a symmetric tensor field f of rank 2, we show that if the transverse ray transform of f vanishes over an appropriate open set of maximal geodesics of M , then the support of f vanishes on the points of M that lie on the union of the aforementioned open set of geodesics.
For a one-parameter family of simple metrics of constant curvature ($4κ$ for $κ\in (-1,1)$) on the unit disk $M$, we first make explicit the Pestov-Uhlmann range characterization of the geodesic X-ray transform, by constructing a basis of functions making up its range and co-kernel. Such a range characterization also translates into moment conditions {\it à la} Helgason-Ludwig or Gel'fand-Graev. We then derive an explicit Singular Value Decomposition for the geodesic X-ray transform. Computations dictate a specific choice of weighted $L^2-L^2$ setting which is equivalent to the $L^2(M, dVol_κ)…
We study the problem of proper discretizing and sampling issues related to geodesic X-ray transforms on simple surfaces, and illustrate the theory on simple geodesic disks of constant curvature. Given a notion of band limit on a function, we provide the minimal sampling rates of its X-ray transform for a faithful reconstruction. In Cartesian sampling, we quantify the quality of a sampling scheme depending on geometric parameters of the surface (e.g. curvature and boundary curvature), and the coordinate system used to represent the space of geodesics. When aliasing happens, we explain how to pr…
We consider spaces of smooth immersed plane curves (modulo translations and/or rotations), equipped with reparameterization invariant weak Riemannian metrics involving second derivatives. This includes the full $H^2$-metric without zero order terms. We find isometries (called $R$-transforms) from some of these spaces into function spaces with simpler weak Riemannian metrics, and we use this to give explicit formulas for geodesics, geodesic distances, and sectional curvatures. We also show how to utilise the isometries to compute geodesics numerically.
This article considers inverse problems on closed Riemannian surfaces whose geodesic flow is Anosov. We prove spectral rigidity for any Anosov surface and injectivity of the geodesic ray transform on solenoidal 2-tensors. We also establish surjectivity results for the adjoint of the geodesic ray transform on solenoidal tensors. The surjectivity results are of independent interest and imply the existence of many geometric invariant distributions on the unit sphere bundle. In particular, we show that on any Anosov surface $(M,g)$, given a smooth function $f$ on $M$ there is a distribution in the…
We first give a constructive answer to the attenuated tensor tomography problem on simple surfaces. We then use this result to propose two approaches to produce vector-valued integral transforms which are fully injective over tensor fields. The first approach is by construction of appropriate weights which vary along the geodesic flow, generalizing the moment transforms. The second one is by changing the pairing with the tensor field to generate a collection of transverse ray transforms.
We show injectivity of the geodesic X-ray transform on piecewise constant functions when the transform is weighted by a continuous matrix weight. The manifold is assumed to be compact and nontrapping of any dimension, and in dimension three and higher we assume a foliation condition. We make no assumption regarding conjugate points or differentiability of the weight. This extends recent results for unweighted transforms.
We show that the existence of a function in $L^{1}$ with constant geodesic X-ray transform imposes geometrical restrictions on the manifold. The boundary of the manifold has to be umbilical and in the case of a strictly convex Euclidean domain, it must be a ball. Functions with constant geodesic X-ray transform always exist on manifolds with rotational symmetry.
We study complex 4-manifolds with holomorphic self-dual conformal structures, and we obtain an interpretation of the Weyl tensor of such a manifold as the projective curvature of a field of cones on the ambitwistor space. In particular, its vanishing is implied by the existence of some compact, simply-connected, null-geodesics. We also relate the Cotton-York tensor of an umbilic hypersurface to the Weyl tensor of the ambient. As a consequence, a conformal 3-manifold or a self-dual 4-manifold admitting a rational curve as a null-geodesic is conformally flat. We show that the projective structur…
We study the microlocal properties of the geodesic X-ray transform $\mathcal{X}$ on a manifold with boundary allowing the presence of conjugate points. Assuming that there are no self-intersecting geodesics and all conjugate pairs are nonsingular we show that the normal operator $\mathcal{N} = \mathcal{X}^t \circ \mathcal{X}$ can be decomposed as the sum of a pseudodifferential operator of order $-1$ and a sum of Fourier integral operators. We also apply this decomposition to prove inversion of $\mathcal{X}$ is only mildly ill-posed in dimension three or higher.
The X-ray transform on the periodic slab $[0,1]\times\mathbb T^n$, $n\geq0$, has a non-trivial kernel due to the symmetry of the manifold and presence of trapped geodesics. For tensor fields gauge freedom increases the kernel further, and the X-ray transform is not solenoidally injective unless $n=0$. We characterize the kernel of the geodesic X-ray transform for $L^2$-regular $m$-tensors for any $m\geq0$. The characterization extends to more general manifolds, twisted slabs, including the Möbius strip as the simplest example.
We show that the geodesic ray transform is injective on scalar functions on spherically symmetric reversible Finsler manifolds where the Finsler norm satisfies a Herglotz condition. We use angular Fourier series to reduce the injectivity problem to the invertibility of generalized Abel transforms and by Taylor expansions of geodesics we show that these Abel transforms are injective. Our result has applications in linearized boundary rigidity problem on Finsler manifolds and especially in linearized elastic travel time tomography.
We prove a sharp $L^2\to H^{1/2}$ stability estimate for the geodesic X-ray transform of tensor fields of order $0$, $1$ and $2$ on a simple Riemannian manifold with a suitable chosen $H^{1/2}$ norm. We show that such an estimate holds for a family of such $H^{1/2}$ norms, not topologically equivalent, but equivalent on the range of the transform. The reason for this is that the geodesic X-ray transform has a microlocally structured range.
We review properties of so-called special conformal Killing tensors on a Riemannian manifold $(Q,g)$ and the way they give rise to a Poisson-Nijenhuis structure on the tangent bundle $TQ$. We then address the question of generalizing this concept to a Finsler space, where the metric tensor field comes from a regular Lagrangian function $E$, homogeneous of degree two in the fibre coordinates on $TQ$. It is shown that when a symmetric type (1,1) tensor field $K$ along the tangent bundle projection $τ: TQ\to Q$ satisfies a differential condition which is similar to the defining relation of specia…
The theory of slow invariant manifolds (SIMs) is the foundation of various model-order reduction techniques for dissipative dynamical systems with multiple time-scales, e.g. in chemical kinetic models. The construction of SIMs and many approximation methods exploit the restrictive requirement of an explicit time-scale separation parameter. Most of those methods are also not formulated covariantly, i.e. in terms of tensorial constructions. We propose an intrinsically coordinate-free differential geometric approximation criterion approximating normally attracting invariant manifolds (NAIMs). We …
A conformal structure on a manifold $M^n$ induces natural second order conformally invariant operators, called Möbius and Laplace structures, acting on specific weight bundles of $M$, provided that $n\ge 3$. By extending the notions of Möbius and Laplace structures to the case of surfaces and curves, we develop here the theory of extrinsic conformal geometry for submanifolds, find tensorial invariants of a conformal embedding, and use these invariants to characterize various forms of geodesic submanifolds.
