Inverse problems for linear degenerate parabolic equations by ``time-like'' Carleman estimate (Q2254519)

Under consideration is the parabolic system \[ u_{kt}- \sum_{j=1}^{N}\text{div\,}(a_{jk}\nabla u_{j})- b_{k} u_{k}=g_{k}, \;\;(x,t)\in Q=G\times (0,T),\;G\subset {\mathbb R}^{n}, \eqno{(1)} \] where \(k=1,\ldots,N\). It is assumed that there exists a function \(a(x,t)>0\) in \(G\times [0,T]\) and a positive constant \(\delta>0\) such that \[ \delta a(x,t)|\xi|^{2}\leq \sum_{j=1}^{N}a_{jk}\xi_{j}\xi_{k}\leq \delta^{-1} a(x,t)|\xi|^{2} \text{ for all }(x,t)\in Q\text{ and for all } \xi\in {\mathbb R}^{n}. \] Thus, it is possible that \(a(x,t)\) vanishes on \(\partial G\times (0,T)\) and the system is degenerate. Moreover, it is assumed that the domain \(G\) is a cylinder \((0,L)\times D\), with \(D\) a bounded domain. The author considers the inverse problem of determination the right-hand side \(g_{k}=\psi_{k}(x',t)f_{k}(x,t)\) (\(x'=(x_{2}\ldots,x_{n})\) and \(f_{k}\) (\(k=1,2,\ldots,N\)) are given functions) or the coefficients \(b_{k}(x',t)\) with the use of the Cauchy data on the lateral boundary of the cylinder and the values of \(u_{k}(x,t_{0})\) (\(t_{0}\in (0,T)\)). Under certain additional conditions on the coefficients of the equation and the data of the problem, it is proven that these two problems have at most one solution and stability estimates are established. It is demonstrated that a solution to the direct problem for one equation with the above data satisfies some Carleman estimate.