On the microlocal analysis of the geodesic X-ray transform with conjugate points (Q1700322)

The geodesic X-ray transform has wide ranging applications in X-ray computerized tomography, the boundary rigidity problem associated with the `travel-time metric for seismic waves', ultrasound transmission tomography, `optical tomography with a variable index of refraction', anisotropic Calderón's problem, etc. This paper is devoted to the study of `microlocal properties of the geodesic X-ray transform \(\mathcal X\)' defined on a Riemannian manifold \(\left(M,g \right)\) with non-simple boundary `allowing the presence of conjugate points'. Prior to this paper, as far as known to this reviewer, the mathematical literature concerning the geodesic X-ray transform was mostly centered around simple manifolds like, [\textit{V. Guillemin} and \textit{S. Sternberg}, Am. J. Math. 101, 915--955 (1979; Zbl 0446.58019); \textit{G. Paternain} et al., Chin. Ann. Math., Ser. B 35, 399--428 (2014; Zbl 1303.92053)], etc. Some of the recent studies highlighting the results of geodesic X-ray transforms for non-simple manifolds can be found in [\textit{B. Frigyik} et al., J. Geom. Anal. 18, No. 1, 89--108 (2008; Zbl 1148.53055); \textit{F. Monard} et al., Comm. Math. Phys. 337, 1491--1513, (2015; Zbl 1319.53086)], etc. In [Guillemin and Sternberg, loc. cit.] it is shown ``that the normal operator \({\mathcal N} = {{\mathcal X}^{t}} \circ \mathcal X\) is an elliptic pseudodifferential operator of order \(-1\) when \(\left(M,g \right)\) is a simple manifold'', \({\mathcal X}^{t}\) being the transpose of \({\mathcal X}\). But for non-simple Riemannian manifolds \(\left(M,g \right)\) the normal operator \( {\mathcal N}\) is not a pseudodifferential operator. \textit{P. Stefanov} and \textit{G. Uhlmann} [Anal. and PDE 5, No. 2, 219--260, (2012; Zbl 1271.53070)] have earlier shown ``that in the case of fold caustics, an appropriately localized version of the normal operator is the sum of a pseudodifferential operator and a Fourier integral operator (FIO)'', a result which is similar to the main result of Theorem 4 established in the present paper by the authors, yet here they ``lessen the restriction to fold caustics''. Monard et al. [loc. cit.] did away with the restriction to fold caustics for the two-dimensional case. In this paper, the method adopted by the authors is similar to the one used by the second author of this paper in his earlier co-authored paper [Zbl 1319.53086] but here the geometry of conjugate points is analyzed more deeply to arrive at ``a more general conclusion''. Assumption 1. \(\left(M,g \right)\) is an \(n\)-dimensional compact, non-trapping Riemannian manifold with smooth strictly convex boundary and with \(n \geq 2\). Under this assumption, the authors state and prove the following most important result of this paper: Theorem 4. Suppose that \({C_S} = \emptyset\). Then the sets \({C_{{A_k}}} = {{\mathcal C}_k}\left( {{J_{R,k}}} \right) \subset {T^*}\left( {{M^{\text{int} }} \times {M^{\text{int} }}} \right)\) are either empty or are local canonical relations. On the level of operators, if \(\phi \in {C^\infty }\left( {SM} \right)\) is greater than or equal to zero everywhere and \({{\mathcal N}_\phi }\) is defined by \({{\mathcal N}_\phi } = {\pi _*} \circ {\phi ^m} \circ {F^*} \circ {F_*} \circ {\phi ^m} \circ {\pi ^*}\) then we have a decomposition \[ {N_\phi } = \Upsilon + \sum\limits_{k = 1}^{n - 1} {\left( {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{{M_k}} {{A_{k,m}}} } \right)},\tag{1} \] where \(\Upsilon \) is a pseudodifferential operator of order \(-1\), and for each \(k\) either \[ {A_{k,m}} \in {{\mathcal I}^{ - \left( {n - k + 1} \right)/2}}\left( {{M^{\text{int} }} \times {M^{\text{int} }},C{'_{{A_{k,m}}}};\Omega _{{M^{\text{int} }} \times {M^{\text{int} }}}^{1/2}} \right), \] where \({C_{{A_{k,m}}}} \subset {C_{{A_k}}}\) for each \(m\), or \({M_k} = 1\) and \({A_{k,1}} = 0\) if \({C_{{A_k}}} = \phi. \) Furthermore, \(\Upsilon \) is elliptic at every point \(\eta \in {T^*}{M^{\text{int} }}\) such that there exists a \(v \in S{M^{\text{int} }}\) with \(\eta \left( v \right) = 0\) and \(\phi \left( v \right) \neq 0.\) Next, supposing that the following assumption holds: Assumption 2. Assume that the dimension \(n\) is at least three, that all conjugate pairs in \(S{\widetilde M^{\text{int} }} \times S{\widetilde M^{\text{int} }}\) are of order \(1\), and that \({C_{{A_1}}}\) (as mentioned in Corollary 1 of the paper) is a local canonical graph. The authors address the problem of inverting \({\mathcal N}_{\phi}\), by using `the decomposition in Theorem 4 to obtain stability estimates for inversion of \(\mathcal X\)', proving the following: Theorem 5. If Assumption 2 is satisfied, \(\phi \in {C^\infty }\left( {SM} \right)\) is greater than or equal to zero everywhere and for every \(\eta \in {T^*}{M^{\text{int} }}\) there exists a \(v \in S{M^{\text{int} }}\) with \(\eta \left( v \right) = 0\) and \(\phi \left( v \right) \neq 0,\) then the kernel of \({{\mathcal X}_\phi }\) acting on \({L^2}\left( {\Omega _M^{1/2}} \right)\) is at most finite-dimensional and is contained in \(C_c^\infty \left( {\Omega _{{M^{\text{int} }}}^{1/2}} \right).\) Furthermore, if \({\mathcal F} \subset {L^2}\left( {\Omega _M^{1/2}} \right)\) is a closed subspace complementary to the kernel of \({{\mathcal X}_\phi }\) then \[ {\left\| {{{\mathcal X}_\phi }\left[ f \right]} \right\|_{{L^2}\left( {\Omega _{\partial \_SM}^{1/2}} \right)}} \sim {\left\| f \right\|_{{H^{ - 1/2}}\left( {\Omega _M^{1/2}} \right)}}\tag{2} \] for all \(f \in {\mathcal F}.\) In the opinion of the reviewer these remarkable results should find some interesting practical applications in X-ray tomography in the coming days, further, he sees eye to eye with the authors' conclusion that ``while we have gone some way towards completing the microlocal analysis of the geodesic X-ray transform for nontrapping manifolds, a number of questions remain'' which, the reviewer hopes that, will be the burning questions of the upcoming research in this field.