Recovery of a potential on a quantum star graph from Weyl's matrix

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient numerical method for recovering potentials on quantum star graphs using Weyl's matrix data, based on NSBF representations and two-spectra inverse Sturm-Liouville problems.

Contribution

It develops a novel approach combining NSBF series and two-spectra problems to recover potentials from finite Weyl matrix data on quantum graphs.

Findings

The method accurately recovers potentials in numerical tests.

It provides estimates for series remainders independent of spectral parameter.

The approach reduces the inverse problem to solving linear algebraic systems.

Abstract

The problem of recovery of a potential on a quantum star graph from Weyl's matrix given at a finite number of points is considered. A method for its approximate solution is proposed. It consists in reducing the problem to a two-spectra inverse Sturm-Liouville problem on each edge with its posterior solution. The overall approach is based on Neumann series of Bessel functions (NSBF) representations for solutions of Sturm-Liouville equations, and, in fact, the solution of the inverse problem on the quantum graph reduces to dealing with the NSBF coefficients. The NSBF representations admit estimates for the series remainders which are independent of the real part of the square root of the spectral parameter. This feature makes them especially useful for solving direct and inverse problems requiring calculation of solutions on large intervals in the spectral parameter. Moreover, the first coefficient of the NSBF representation alone is sufficient for the recovery of the potential. The knowledge of the Weyl matrix at a set of points allows one to calculate a number of the NSBF coefficients at the end point of each edge, which leads to approximation of characteristic functions of two Sturm-Liouville problems and allows one to compute the Dirichlet-Dirichlet and Neumann-Dirichlet spectra on each edge. In turn, for solving this two-spectra inverse Sturm-Liouville problem a system of linear algebraic equations is derived for computing the first NSBF coefficient and hence for recovering the potential. The proposed method leads to an efficient numerical algorithm that is illustrated by a number of numerical tests.