Dynamic Inverse Wave Problems - Part I: Regularity for the Direct Problem

TL;DR

This paper extends regularity results for second-order hyperbolic PDEs with time-dependent parameters, facilitating parameter identification in inverse wave problems like seismic tomography.

Contribution

It provides new regularity results for hyperbolic PDEs with time-dependent coefficients, enabling better analysis of the Fréchet-derivative in inverse problems.

Findings

Extended regularity results for time-dependent hyperbolic PDEs.

Improved understanding of the parameter-to-state map derivatives.

Facilitated reconstruction of time-dependent densities in wave equations.

Abstract

For parameter identification problems the Fr\'echet-derivative of the parameter-to-state map is of particular interest. In many applications, e.g. in seismic tomography, the unknown quantity is modeled as a coefficient in a linear differential equation, therefore computing the derivative of this map involves solving the same equation, but with a different right-hand side. It then remains to show that this right-hand side is regular enough to ensure the existence of a solution. For second-order hyperbolic PDEs with time-dependent parameters the needed results are not as readily available as in the stationary case, especially when working in a variational framework. This complicates for example the reconstruction of a time-dependent density in the wave equation. To overcome this problem we extend the existing regularity results to the time-dependent case.