Reconstruction and solvability for discontinuous Hochstadt-Lieberman problems (Q2043650)

In this paper, the authors consider Sturm-Liouville problems with a discontinuity in an interior point, which are motivated by inverse problems for the torsional modes of the Earth. They consider the eigenvalue problem consisting of the differential equation \[ -y''+q(x)y =\lambda^{2} y \tag{1} \] on the interval \([0,1]\) with the boundary conditions \[ y'(0)-h_{1} y(0)=0=y'(1)+h_{2} y(1) \tag{2} \] and with the jump conditions \[ y(d+)=a_{1}y(d-), \quad y'(d+)=a^{-1}_{1}y'(d-)+a_{2}y(d-) \tag{3} \] where \(q\in L^{2}(0,1)\), \(0<d\leq \frac{1}{2}\), \(a_{1}>0\) and \(|a_{1}-1|+|a_{2}|>0\). First, they formulate the Hald's uniqueness theorems as follows. Theorem A (uniqueness). Let \(d=\frac{1}{2}\) and \(\{ \lambda^{2}_{n} \}_{n\geq 0}\) be the eigenvalues of the problem (1)--(3). Then the data \(\{ \{ \lambda^{2}_{n} \}_{n\geq 0}, a_{1}, h_{2}, q|_{[1/2,1]} \}\) uniquely determine \(q\) almost everywhere on the interval \([0,1]\), the quantities \(a_{2}\) and \(h_{1}\). Theorem B (uniqueness). Let \(0<d<\frac{1}{2}\) and \(\{ \lambda^{2}_{n} \}_{n\geq 0}\) be the eigenvalues of the problem (1)--(3). Then the data \(\{ \{ \lambda^{2}_{n} \}_{n\geq 0}, h_{2}, q|_{[1/2,1]} \}\) uniquely determine \(q\) almost everywhere on the interval \([0,1]\) and the quantities \(\{a_{1},a_{2},d, h_{1} \}\). The authors focus on the inverse problems, corresponding to Theorems A and B. Their technique for solving these inverse problems is based on the representation of the characteristic function for the whole interval, by using the characteristic functions for the half-intervals. They use slightly different approaches for \(d=\frac{1}{2}\) and \(0<d<\frac{1}{2}\). In the case \(d=\frac{1}{2}\), since the parameters of the jump conditions are supposed to be known, and the half-inverse problem is reduced to the complete inverse problem on the interval \((0,\frac{1}{2})\), they solve the inverse problem by standard methods of inverse problem theory, and the transformation operator method is applied. In the case \(0<d<\frac{1}{2}\), first the parameters \(d\) and \(a_1\) of the jump condition are reconstructed. Then, for solving the inverse problem for the Sturm-Liouville equation with a discontinuity, they apply the method of spectral mappings. For the both half-inverse problems, corresponding to Theorems A and B, necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of the solution are obtained, and two algorithms are presented for solving these inverse problems, respectively.