Output least squares stability in elliptic systems (Q1110471)

For the model equation \(A(q)u=f\), where A(q) is a linear elliptic operator depending on a functional parameter q, the authors study continuous dependence of the solution of the output least squares (OLS) formulation for parameter estimation problems on the data. By adding a regularization term to the cost functional, a local concept of uniqueness and stability is investigated. Sufficient conditions for the regularized OLS stability are given and applied to the estimation of the diffusion, convection, and friction coefficient in 2nd order eliptic equations. Furthermore, results on Tikhonov regularization in a nonlinear setting, independent of the elliptic structure, are provided.