Inverse problems in quasilinear anisotropic media (Q4351041)

Let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 2\), be a bounded domain with \(C^{2,\alpha}\) boundary, \(0<\alpha<1\). Let \(A(x,t)= (a_{ij} (x,t))_{n\times n}\) be a symmetric, positive definite matrix function defined on \(\overline{\Omega}\times \mathbb{R}\), satisfying \[ A(x,t)\geq \varepsilon_T I, \qquad (x,t)\in \overline{\Omega}\times [-T,T], \quad T>0, \] where \(\varepsilon_T>0\) and \(I\) denotes the identity matrix. If \(A\in C^{1,\alpha} (\overline{\Omega}\times \mathbb{R})\), \(0<\alpha<1\), the quasilinear boundary value problem \[ \nabla \cdot A(x,u)\nabla u=0 \quad\text{in }\Omega, \qquad u|_{\partial\Omega}= f,\tag{1} \] is uniquely solvable: for any \(f\in C^{2,\alpha} (\partial\Omega)\) there exists a unique solution \(u\in C^{2,\alpha} (\overline{\Omega})\). It is introduced the quasilinear Dirichlet to Neumann map \(\Lambda_A: C^{2,\alpha} (\partial\Omega)\to C^{1,\alpha} (\partial\Omega)\) as the map given by \[ \Lambda_A: f\to\nu\cdot A(x,f)\nabla u|_{\partial\Omega}, \] where \(u\) is the solution of (1) and \(\nu\) denotes the unit outer normal of \(\partial\Omega\). Physically, \(u\) represents the voltage potential, \(A(x,u)\) the nonlinear, anisotropic conductivity of \(\Omega\), and \(\Lambda_A(f)\) is induced current flux at the boundary induced by the voltage \(f\). The authors study the following inverse boundary value problem associated to (1): how much information about the quasilinear coefficient matrix \(A\) can be obtained from knowledge of the quasilinear Dirichlet to Neumann map \(\Lambda_A\)? Namely, they consider the question of whether one can determine the anisotropic, quasilinear conductivity of a medium by making voltage and current measurements at the boundary. The authors prove that all the known results for the linear case also hold in the quasilinear case.