An inverse boundary value problem for the Helmholtz equation in a bounded domain is considered. The problem is to extract information about an unknown obstacle embedded in the domain with unknown impedance boundary condition (the Robin condition) from the associated Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. The main result is a characterization of the unknown obstacle via the sequences that are constructed by the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map, under smallness conditions on the wave number and the upper bound of the impedance. Moreover two alternative simple proofs of a previous result of Cheng-Liu-Nakamura which are based on only some energy estimates, an analysis of the blowup of the energy of so-called reflected solutions and an application of the enclosure method to the problem are also given.
We deal with the inverse scattering problem of determining the surface impedance of a partially coated obstacle. We prove a stability estimate of logarithmic type for the impedance term by the far field measurements.
It is proved that a connected polygonal obstacle coated by thin layers together with its surface impedance function can be determined uniquely from the far field pattern of a single incident plane wave. Our proof is based on the Schwarz reflection principle for the Helmholtz equation satisfying the impedance boundary condition on a flat boundary.
We prove a stability estimate of logarithmic type for the inverse problem consisting in the determination of the surface impedance of an obstacle from the scattering amplitude. We present a simple and direct proof which is essentially based on an elliptic Carleman inequality.
We treat the stability of determining the boundary impedance of an obstacle by scattering data, with a single incident field. A previous result by Sincich (SIAM J. Math. Anal. 38, (2006), 434-451) showed a log stability when the boundary of the obstacle is assumed to be C^{1,1}-smooth. We prove that, when the obstacle boundary is merely Lipschitz, a log-log type stability still holds.
An inverse obstacle scattering problem for the wave governed by the Maxwell system in the time domain, in particular, over a finite time interval is considered. It is assumed that the electric field $\mbox{\boldmath $E$}$ and magnetic field $\mbox{\boldmath $H$}$ which are solutions of the Maxwell system are generated only by a current density at the initial time located not far a way from an unknown obstacle. The obstacle is embedded in a medium like air which has constant electric permittivity $ε$ and magnetic permeability $μ$. It is assumed that the fields on the surface of the obstacle sat…
In this paper, we give a positive answer to a challenging open problem for recovering unknown obstacle (which is usually referred to as a scatterer) by acoustic wave probe associated to the Helmholtz equation. We show that the acoustic scattering amplitude $A(β, α_0, k_0)$, known for all $β\in {\mathbb S}^2$, where ${\mathbb {S}}^2$ is the unit sphere in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$, ${α}_0\in {\mathbb{S}}^2$ is fixed, $k_0>0$ is fixed, determines the obstacle $D$ and the boundary condition on $\partial D$ uniquely (The boundary condition on $\partial D$ is either the Dirichlet, or Neumann, or the impedan…
This paper is devoted to the study of the generalized impedance boundary conditions (GIBCs) for a strongly absorbing obstacle in the {\bf time} regime in two and three dimensions. The GIBCs in the time domain are heuristically derived from the corresponding conditions in the time harmonic regime. The latters are frequency dependent except the one of order 0; hence the formers are non-local in time in general. The error estimates in the time regime can be derived from the ones in the time harmonic regime when the frequency dependence is well-controlled. This idea is originally due to Nguyen and…
We propose an inverse scattering scheme of recovering a polyhedral obstacle in $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n=2,3$, by only a few high-frequency acoustic backscattering measurements. The obstacle could be sound-soft or sound-hard. It is shown that the modulus of the far-field pattern in the backscattering aperture possesses a certain local maximum behavior, from which one can determine the exterior normal directions of the front sides/faces. Then by using the phaseless backscattering data corresponding to a few incident plane waves with suitably chosen incident directions, one can determine the exterior u…
In this paper we consider the electromagnetic scattering problem by an obstacle characterised by a Generalized Impedance Boundary Condition in the harmonic regime. These boundary conditions are well known to provide accurate models for thin layers or imperfectly conducting bodies. We give two different formulations of the scattering problem and we provide some general assumptions on the boundary condition under which the scattering problem has at most one solution. We also prove that it is well-posed for three different boundary conditions which involve second order surface differential operat…
We prove quantitative norm bounds for a family of operators involving impedance boundary conditions on convex, polygonal domains. A robust numerical construction of Helmholtz scattering solutions in variable media via the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator involves a decomposition of the domain into a sequence of rectangles of varying scales and constructing impedance-to-impedance boundary operators on each subdomain. Our estimates in particular ensure the invertibility, with quantitative bounds in the frequency, of the merge operators required to reconstruct the original Dirichlet-to-Neumann opera…
In this paper, we consider an inverse conductivity problem on a bounded domain $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\geq2$, also known as Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT), for the case where unknown impenetrable obstacles are embedded into $Ω$. We show that a piecewise-constant conductivity function and embedded obstacles can be simultaneously recovered in terms of the local Dirichlet-to-Neumann map defined on an arbitrary small open subset of the boundary of the domain $Ω$. The method depends on the well-posedness of a coupled PDE-system constructed for the conductivity equations in the $H^1$-space…
We consider the time-harmonic Maxwell system in a domain with a generalized impedance edge-corner, namely the presence of two generalized impedance planes that intersect at an edge. The impedance parameter can be $0, \infty$ or a finite non-identically vanishing variable function. We establish an accurate relationship between the vanishing order of the solutions to the Maxwell system and the dihedral angle of the edge-corner. In particular, if the angle is irrational, the vanishing order is infinity, i.e. strong unique continuation holds from the edge-corner. The establishment of those new qua…
We study a notion of relative entropy motivated by self-expanders of mean curvature flow. In particular, we obtain the existence of this quantity for arbitrary hypersurfaces trapped between two disjoint self-expanders asymptotic to the same cone. This allows us to begin to develop the variational theory for the relative entropy functional for the associated obstacle problem. We also obtain a version of the forward monotonicity formula for mean curvature flow proposed by Ilmanen.
We consider the unique determinations of impenetrable obstacles or diffraction grating profiles in $\mathbb{R}^3$ by a single far-field measurement within polyhedral geometries. We are particularly interested in the case that the scattering objects are of impedance type. We derive two new unique identifiability results for the inverse scattering problem in the aforementioned two challenging setups. The main technical idea is to exploit certain quantitative geometric properties of the Laplacian eigenfunctions which were initiated in our recent works [8,9]. In this paper, we derive novel geometr…
In our earlier paper [9], it is proved that a homogeneous rigid, traction or impedance condition on one or two intersecting line segments together with a certain zero point-value condition implies that the solution to the Lamé system must be identically zero, which is referred to as the generalized Holmgren principle (GHP). The GHP enables us to solve a longstanding inverse scattering problem of determining a polygonal elastic obstacle of general impedance type by at most a few far-field measurements. In this paper, we include all the possible physical boundary conditions from linear elasticit…
We study quasilinear elliptic double obstacle problems with a variable exponent growth when the right-hand side is a measure. A global Calderón-Zygmund estimate for the gradient of an approximable solution is obtained in terms of the associated double obstacles and a given measure, identifying minimal requirements for the regularity estimate.
We consider the Cauchy problem for semilinear parabolic equation in divergence form with obstacle. We show that under natural conditions on the right-hand side of the equation and mild conditions on the obstacle the problem has a unique solution and we provide its stochastic representation in terms of reflected backward stochastic differential equations. We prove also regularity properties and approximation results for solutions of the problem.
We consider two-dimensional waveguide with a rectangular obstacle symmetric about the axis of the waveguie. We study the behaviour of the Neumann eigenvalues located below the first threshold when the sides of the obstacle approach the edges of the waveguide. We show that only one of the eigenvalues converge to the first threshold, and the rate of convergence depends on whether the length of the obstacle divided by the width of the waveguide is integer or not.
In this paper, we study almost minimizers for the parabolic thin obstacle (or Signorini) problem with zero obstacle. We establish their $H^{σ,σ/2}$-regularity for every $0<σ<1$, as well as $H^{β,β/2}$-regularity of their spatial gradients on the either side of the thin space for some $0<β<1$. A similar result is also obtained for almost minimizers for the Signorini problem with variable Hölder coefficients.
We consider the classical obstacle problem on bounded, connected Lipschitz domains $D \subset \mathbb{R}^n$. We derive quantitative bounds on the changes to contact sets under general perturbations to both the right hand side and the boundary data for obstacle problems. In particular, we show that the Lebesgue measure of the symmetric difference between two contact sets is linearly comparable to the $L^1$-norm of perturbations in the data.
Over the last ten years, results from [Melenk-Sauter, 2010], [Melenk-Sauter, 2011], [Esterhazy-Melenk, 2012], and [Melenk-Parsania-Sauter, 2013] decomposing high-frequency Helmholtz solutions into "low"- and "high"-frequency components have had a large impact in the numerical analysis of the Helmholtz equation. These results have been proved for the constant-coefficient Helmholtz equation in either the exterior of a Dirichlet obstacle or an interior domain with an impedance boundary condition. Using the Helffer-Sjöstrand functional calculus, this paper proves analogous decompositions for scatt…
This work is devoted to the study of the obstacle problem associated to the Kolmogorov-Fokker-Planck operator with rough coefficients through a variational approach. In particular, after the introduction of a proper anisotropic Sobolev space and related properties, we prove the existence and uniqueness of a weak solution for the obstacle problem by adapting a classical perturbation argument to the convex functional associated to the case of our interest. Finally, we conclude this work by providing a one-sided associated variational inequality, alongside with an overview on related open problem…
We consider Anzellotti-type almost minimizers for the thin obstacle (or Signorini) problem with zero thin obstacle and establish their $C^{1,β}$ regularity on the either side of the thin manifold, the optimal growth away from the free boundary, the $C^{1,γ}$ regularity of the regular part of the free boundary, as well as a structural theorem for the singular set. The analysis of the free boundary is based on a successful adaptation of energy methods such as a one-parameter family of Weiss-type monotonicity formulas, Almgren-type frequency formula, and the epiperimetric and logarithmic epiperim…
We consider the Cauchy problem for semilinear parabolic equation in divergence form with obstacle. We show that under natural conditions on the right-hand side of the eqution and mild conditions on the obstacle a unique continuous solution of the problem admits a stochastic representation in terms of reflected backward stochastic differential equations. We derive also some regularity properties of so- lutions and prove useful approximation results.
We study almost minimizers for the thin obstacle problem with variable Hölder continuous coefficients and zero thin obstacle and establish their $C^{1,β}$ regularity on the either side of the thin space. Under an additional assumption of quasisymmetry, we establish the optimal growth of almost minimizers as well as the regularity of the regular set and a structural theorem on the singular set. The proofs are based on the generalization of Weiss- and Almgren-type monotonicity formulas for almost minimizers established earlier in the case of constant coefficients.
Two boundary value problems for the Helmholtz equation in a semi-infinite strip are considered. The main feature of these problems is that, in addition to the function and its normal derivative on the boundary, the functionals of the boundary conditions possess tangential derivatives of the second and fourth orders. Also, the setting of the problems is complimented by certain edge conditions at the two vertices of the semi-strip. The problems model wave propagation in a semi-infinite waveguide with membrane and plate walls. A technique for the exact solution of these fluid-structure interactio…
In the paper, we consider the obstacle problem, with one and two irregular barriers, for semilinear evolution equation involving measure data and operator corresponding to a semi-Dirichlet form. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions under the assumption that the right-hand side of the equation is monotone and satisfies mild integrability conditions. To treat the case of irregular barriers, we extend the theory of precise versions of functions introduced by M. Pierre. We also give some applications to the so-called switching problem.
We study the regularity of the viscosity solution to the fully nonlinear parabolic thin obstacle problem. In particular, we prove that the solution is local $H^{1+α}$ on each side of the smooth obstacle, for some small $α>0.$ Following the method which was first introduced for the harmonic case by Caffarelli in 1979, we extend the results of Fernández-Real (2016) who treated the fully nonlinear elliptic case. Our results also extend those of Chatzigeorgiou (2019) in two ways. First, we do not assume solutions nor operators to be symmetric. Second, our estimates are local, in the sense that do …
We establish a logarithmic stability estimate for the problem of detecting corrosion by a single electric measurement. We give a proof based on an adaptation of the method initiated in \cite{BCJ} for solving the inverse problem of recovering the surface impedance of an obstacle from the scattering amplitude. The key idea consists in estimating accurately a lower bound of the $L^2$-norm, locally at the boundary, of the solution of the boundary value problem used in modeling the problem of detection corrosion by an electric measurement
This paper is concerned with uniqueness in inverse acoustic scattering with phaseless far-field data at a fixed frequency. In our previous work ({\em SIAM J. Appl. Math. \bf78} (2018), 1737-1753), by utilizing spectral properties of the far-field operator we proved for the first time that the obstacle and the index of refraction of an inhomogeneous medium can be uniquely determined by the phaseless far-field patterns generated by infinitely many sets of superpositions of two plane waves with different directions at a fixed frequency under the a priori assumption that the obstacle is known to b…
Consider the Lamé operator $\mathcal{L}(\mathbf{ u} ) :=μΔ\mathbf{u}+(λ+μ) \nabla(\nabla \cdot \mathbf{ u} )$ that arises in the theory of linear elasticity. This paper studies the geometric properties of the (generalized) Lamé eigenfunction $\mathbf{u}$, namely $-\mathcal{L}(\mathbf{ u} )=κ\mathbf{ u}$ with $κ\in\mathbb{R}_+$ and $\mathbf{ u}\in L^2(Ω)^2$, $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^2$. We introduce the so-called homogeneous line segments of $\mathbf{u}$ in $Ω$, on which $\mathbf{u}$, its traction or their combination via an impedance parameter is vanishing. We give a comprehensive study on characte…
We prove Lipschitz continuity results for solutions to a class of obstacle problems under standard growth conditions of $p$-type, $p \geq 2$. The main novelty is the use of a linearization technique going back to [28] in order to interpret our constrained minimizer as a solution to a nonlinear elliptic equation, with a bounded right-hand side. This leads us to start a Moser iteration scheme which provides the $L^\infty$ bound for the gradient. The application of a recent higher differentiability result [24] allows us to simplify the procedure of the identification of the Radon measure in the l…
We study the pointwise regularity of solutions to parabolic equations. As a first result, we prove that if the modulus of mean oscillation of $Δu -u_t$ at the origin is Dini (in $L^p$ average), then the origin is a Lebesgue point of continuity (still in $L^p$ average) for $D^2 u$ and $\dd_t u$. We extend this pointwise regularity result to the parabolic obstacle problem with Dini right hand side. In particular, we prove that the solution to the obstacle problem has, at regular points of the free boundary, a Taylor expansion up to order two in space and one in time (in the $L^p$ average). Moreo…
In this note, we prove that if a subharmonic function $Δu\ge 0$ has pure second derivatives $\partial_{ii} u$ that are signed measures, then their negative part $(\partial_{ii} u)_-$ belongs to $L^1$ (in particular, it is not singular). We then show that this improvement of regularity cannot be upgraded to $L^p$ for any $p > 1$. We finally relate this problem to a natural question on the one-sided regularity of solutions to the obstacle problem with rough obstacles.
We study the regularity of solutions to the fully nonlinear thin obstacle problem. We establish local $C^{1,α}$ estimates on each side of the smooth obstacle, for some small $α> 0$. Our results extend those of Milakis-Silvestre in two ways: first, we do not assume solutions nor operators to be symmetric, and second, our estimates are local, in the sense that do not rely on the boundary data. As a consequence, we prove $C^{1,α}$ regularity even when the problem is posed in general Lipschitz domains.
