No label defined (Q4351741)

The authors consider the problem of recovery of a domain \(D\subset\subset \Omega\) entering the conductivity coefficient \(a(x)= 1+\mu\chi_D(x)\) of the elliptic equation \[ \text{div}(a\nabla u)=0,\quad\text{in }\Omega, \] with the boundary condition \(u=g\) on \(\partial\Omega\). The additional data are \(\partial_\nu n=h\), on \(\Gamma_0\subset\partial\Omega\), where \(\Gamma_0\) is an open nonempty part of \(\partial\Omega\). Here \(\Omega\) is a known bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 2\), with smooth (for instance \(C^2\)) connected boundary \(\partial\Omega\), \(\nu\) denotes the exterior unit normal, and \(\mu\) is a constant parameter, \(\mu>-1\), \(\mu\neq 0\). Both cases when \(\mu\) is assumed to be known and when \(\mu\) is part of the unknowns are considered. The main issue addressed by the authors is whether there exist domains \(D\) which can be uniquely determined in some ``large'' class of domains, that is domains on which no, or little, geometrical assumptions are made. The authors show that nonuniqueness in the determination of the domain \(D\) would imply that a part \(\Gamma\) of \(\partial D\) is a solution of a particular free boundary problem. Analyticity properties of such a free boundary are proved, and uniqueness results for the inverse conductivity problem are established.