Recovery of the singularities of a potential from backscattering data in general dimension

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the main singularities of a complex potential can be recovered from backscattering data in any dimension, providing explicit formulas and analyzing regularity gains and limitations.

Contribution

It introduces a new explicit formula for multiple dispersion operators and analyzes the regularity gain of the potential from backscattering data.

Findings

Main singularities are contained in the Born approximation.

The difference between the potential and its approximation can be more regular by one derivative.

Counterexamples show limits on regularity gain depending on initial regularity.

Abstract

We prove that in dimension $n\ge 2$ the main singularities of a complex potential $q$ having a certain a priori regularity are contained in the Born approximation $q_{B}$ constructed from backscattering data. This is archived using a new explicit formula for the multiple dispersion operators in the Fourier transform side. We also show that ${q-q_{B}}$ can be up to one derivative more regular than $q$ in the Sobolev scale. On the other hand, we construct counterexamples showing that in general it is not possible to have more than one derivative gain, sometimes even strictly less, depending on the a priori regularity of $q$.