Sojourn times, manifolds with infinite cylindrical ends, and an inverse problem for planar waveguides (Q1042655)

The author studies inverse obstacle problems. For fixed \(\gamma\), if \(X={\mathbb R}\times(-\gamma,\gamma)\setminus{\mathcal O}\), the problem consists in determining \({\mathcal O}\) from scattering data. The author shows here that two entries of the scattering matrix for the Dirichlet Laplacian on \(X\) suffice to determine \({\mathcal O}\), within a certain class. As a starting point, the author considers general manifolds with cylindrical ends, and proves an integral identity which relates an entry in the scattering matrix to the fundamental solution of the wave equation. Then it is used to show a relationship between the sojourn times of ``axial'' geodesics and entries of the scattering matrix, which is then exploited to study the case when \({\mathcal O}\) is a compact, strictly convex analytic obstacle. For the Dirichlet Laplacian on \(X\), the author shows that knowledge of two specific entries in the scattering matrix uniquely determines a compact, analytic and strictly convex \({\mathcal O}\). Imposing an additional symmetry on \({\mathcal O}\), the knowledge of a single entry suffices.