No label defined (Q3973643)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0722.00016.] Inverse problems of applied mathematics are often ill-posed. If a problem \(\phi(x)=z\) (\(x\) solution, \(z\) data) is rewritten as a best-fit problem \(\displaystyle\min_ x\|\phi(x)-z\|\) with a suitable norm \(\|\dots\|\), the range of \(\phi\) may not contain all interesting data points (perhaps due to simplifications in the physics used to formulate \(\phi\)). If \(\phi\) is ``sufficiently smooth'', the cost function \(J(x,z)=\|\phi(x)-z\|\) may be non-convex, with many local minima for the prescribed set of \(x\). Their existence must be regarded as a form of instability of the solution, i.e. nonlinear ill-posedness. This paper deals with the detection of a special type of solution at these local minima, namely plane waves, and describes briefly a version of velocity estimation there.