A discrete analog of the Gelfand-Levitan method in a~two-dimensional inverse problem for a hyperbolic equation (Q1972189)

The authors study a discrete analog of the Gelfand-Levitan method for determining the coefficient \(q(x, y)\) of the equation \[ L_q = \frac{\partial^2u}{\partial t^2} - \Delta u + qu = 0 \] from the traces on \(x =0\) of the solutions to a family of Cauchy problems. Moreover, \(q\) may also depend on a greater number of variables. The following discrete analog of the inverse problem can be posed: Determine a continuous function \(q(x,y)\) from the relations \[ \begin{aligned} & \frac{\partial^2u^m}{\partial t^2} = \frac{\partial^2u^m}{\partial x^2} + \frac{\partial^2u^m}{\partial y^2} - q(x,y)u^m,\quad x\in\mathbb R,\;y\in \mathbb R,\;t>0, \\ & u^m(x,y,0)=0,\quad \frac{\partial^2u^m}{\partial t^2}(x,y,0) = \delta(x)e^{imy}, \;x\in\mathbb R,\;y\in\mathbb R, \\ & u^m(0,y,t)=f^m(y,t),\quad \frac{\partial^2u^m}{\partial t^2}(0,y,t) = 0,\quad y\in\mathbb R,\;t>0. \end{aligned} \] The function \(q(x,y)\) is even in all variables and the functions \(u^m(x,y,t)\) and \(q(x,y)\) are \(2\pi\)-periodic in \(y\). The importance of studying the discrete analogs of multidimensional inverse problems is primarily justified by their strong ill-posedness which is of the same type as in the Cauchy problem for the Laplace equation. In the article under consideration, the authors show that a discrete analog of the inverse problem is equivalent to a finite set of systems of linear algebraic equations.