Data compatibility and conditional stability for an inverse source problem in the heat equation (Q2489197)

The author considers the problem of recovering the nonlinearity \(g\) in the following one-dimensional parabolic equation, where \(D_T=(0,1)\times (0,T)\), \(T>0\): \[ D_tu(x,t) - D_x^2u(t,x) = a(x) g(u(t,x)),\qquad (x,t)\in D_T, \] subject to the initial and boundary conditions \[ u(x,0)=0,\quad x\in [0,1], \qquad D_xu(0,t)=-h(t),\quad D_xu(1,t)=0, \quad t\in [0,T]. \] For this purpose, function \(g\) is sought for as the one minimizing the error functional \[ J(u)=\int_0^1 | u(T,x)-\theta(x)| ^2\,dx \] in the class \(G\) of functions that are continuous everywhere in \({\mathbb R_+}\) and piecewise smooth there, with \(g(0)=0\), \(g(u)\geq 0\) for all \(u\in [0,M]\), \(g\neq 0\), \(M=\theta(0)\). Moreover, the data are assumed to satisfy the following properties: (i) \(a\in C([0,1])\), \(a(x)>0\) for all \(x\in (0,1)\); (ii) \(h\in C([0,1])\), \(h(0)=0\), \(h(t)>0\) for all \(t\in (0,T)\); (iii) \(\theta\) is continuous in \([0,1]\) and piecewise smooth there, with \(\theta(x)\geq 0\) and \(\theta'(x)\leq 0\) for all \(x\in (0,1)\); (iv) \(\theta'(0)=-h(T)\), \(\theta'(1)=0\). Under such assumptions a conditional stability result -- in a suitable metric space for \(g\) -- is proved. However, in Theorem 3.2 the author should have explained detailly why the first variation of the functional \(J\) vanishes at a minimal point \(g_0\in S_{ad}\), since it needs not to be an interior point of the non-open set \(S_{ad}\). The paper is supplied with two examples where numerical computations are carried out to validate the procedure.