Inverse problems: seeing the unseen

Abstract

This survey article deals mainly with two inverse problems and the relation between them. The first inverse problem we consider is whether one can determine the electrical conductivity of a medium by making voltage and current measurements at the boundary. This is called electrical impedance tomography and also Calderón's problem since the famous analyst proposed it in the mathematical literature (Calderón in On an inverse boundary value problem. Seminar on numerical analysis and its applications to continuum physics (Rio de Janeiro, 1980), Soc Brasil Mat. Rio de Janeiro, pp. 65–73, 1980). The second is on travel time tomography. The question is whether one can determine the anisotropic index of refraction of a medium by measuring the travel times of waves going through the medium. This can be recast as a geometry problem, the boundary rigidity problem. Can we determine a Riemannian metric of a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary by measuring the distance function between boundary points? These two inverse problems concern visibility, that is whether we can determine the internal properties of a medium by making measurements at the boundary. The last topic of this paper considers the opposite issue: invisibility: Can one make objects invisible to different types of waves, including light?

Locations

• Bulletin of Mathematical Sciences - View - PDF