Continuous observability for the anisotropic Maxwell system (Q2641884)

The author studies the evolution of the electromagnetic field as given by the homogeneous Maxwell's equation with variable, anisotropic coefficients. The electric permeability and the magnetic permittivity, denoted as usual by \(\varepsilon\) and \(\mu\), are assumed to be real, positive definite, symmetric \(3\times{3}\) matrices. Let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^3\) be an open bounded set with a connected complement, \(C^2\) boundary. The electromagnetic energy \(E\) can be written \[ E(e,h;t)=\tfrac{1}{2}(\| e\| ^{2}_{L_{2}(\Omega,\varepsilon)}+\| h\| ^{2}_{L_{2}(\Omega,\mu)}). \] The main result is that for \(\Omega\) with certain given constraints, an estimate for \(E\) can be given. The result implies uniqueness for an ill-posed Cauchy problem for Maxwell's system. Both results are so far known only in the special case of isotropic coefficients, i.e., when Maxwell's system reduces to a vector wave equation. Here the analysis is carried out for the first-order system directly without references to the wave equation.