Inverse source problem for the hyperbolic equation with a time-dependent principal part (Q338467)

The paper is aimed to investigate the inverse problem of determining the spacial component of the source term in a hyperbolic equation with time-dependent principal part. Investigating both theoretical and numerical aspects of the problem originates not only from an interest in mathematics but also has roots in practice. Although inverse hyperbolic problems have attracted considerable attention during the last two decades, the majority of the existing works treated inverse source problems with time-independent principal part (see, for example, [\textit{A. L. Bukhgejm} and \textit{M. V. Klibanov}, Sov. Math., Dokl. 24, 244--247 (1981); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 260, 269--272 (1981; Zbl 0497.35082)]). Carleman estimates are used to prove a local stability result of Hölder type given partial boundary, or interior, observation data. The problem is reformulated into a related optimization problem by means of classical Tikhonov regularization. An iterative thresholding algorithm is developed by using the corresponding adjoint system to solve the problem numerically. Numerical examples up to three spatial dimensions are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.