No label defined (Q4392807)

A non-overdetermined \(n\)-dimensional inverse problem (IP) for the parabolic equation \[ u_t= D\Delta_u+ a(x)u,\quad u(x,0)= \delta(x),\quad x\in\mathbb{R}^n\quad (n= 2,3) \] with a single source location at \(\{0\}\) is considered. The IP consists of the determination of the coefficient \(a(x)\) within a convex bounded domain \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\). Such an IP arises in imaging of small inclusions hidden within a turbid media using near infrared light propagation. Applications include an early breast cancer diagnosis and mine detection in the coastal waters using ultrashort laser pulses propagation. A coast functional \(J_\lambda\) is constructed by using the Carleman's weight functionals. In this paper, the author extends results of his previous works to the parabolic case. Thus, one of the major points of this paper consists of a careful evaluation of the solution of the parabolic Cauchy problem at \(t\to 0\): the hyperplane is used instead of the characteristic cone. The uniform strict convexity of \(J_\lambda\) on a reasonable compact sets of solutions is the main result. Therefore, the global convergence on such a compact set of a number of minimization techniques to the unique global minimum of \(J_\lambda\) is assumed.