No label defined (Q4486992)

The authors study inverse/observability for the control of the Schrödinger equation with variable coefficients. They start with defining a second-order operator \[ A:Aw\equiv -\sum_{i,j} \partial/\partial x_i\;(a_{ij}(x) \partial w/\partial x_j),\;x\in \mathbb{R}^n, \] satisfying uniform ellipticity conditions, with \[ \sum_{i,j}(a_{ij}(x) \xi_i\xi_j)> 0\;\forall x\forall\xi\in \mathbb{R}^n, \] and proceed to consider the Dirichlet problem for the Schrödinger equation in the space-time \(Q= [0,T]\times \Omega:iw_t+ Aw= F_1(w)\), \(w(0)= 0\) in \(\Omega\), \(w|_\Sigma= w_0\) on \(\Sigma_0\), \(w|_\Sigma= u\) on \(\Sigma_1\) \((\Sigma_0\cup \Sigma_1= \Sigma= [0,T]\times \partial\Omega)\) and also the adjoint system in the variable \(\psi\) with specified finite time conditions: \(\psi(T)= \psi_0\) and \(\psi\equiv 0\) on \(\Sigma\). First, the authors establish the a priori inequality for the homogeneous Dirichlet problem: \[ \int^T_0 \int_\Gamma |\partial\psi/ \partial\nu_A|^2 d\Sigma_1\geq c_T\|\psi_0\|^2 \] (in the \(H^1_0\) norm). Here \(\nu\) denotes the unit outward derivative to the boundary. The converse trace regularity was proved by Lasiecka and Triggiani in 1991. The authors' main result is the inverse estimate for solutions \(w\) showing that the energy (\(H^1_0\) norm) is dominated by the boundary traces \(\partial w/\partial\nu_A\) and \(w_t\), modulo lower-order terms. Then uniqueness of solutions implies continuous observability for the Dirichlet and Neumann cases for a suitably short observation time, and by duality implies exact controllability. The authors make the following statement in their abstract: ``In contrast to existing literature the first step of our method employs Riemann geometry approach to reduce the original variable problem \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) to a problem on an appropriate Riemannian manifold (determined by the coefficients of the principal part), where the principal part is the Laplacian. In the second part, we employ Carleman estimates at the differential level to take care of the variable first-order (energy level) terms. In the third step we employ microlocal analysis yielding a sharp trace estimate to remove artificial geometric conditions on the control part of the boundary in the Neumann case.'' The authors also present an excellent brief summary of existing literature on continuous observability, and by duality exact controllability, for second-order partial differential equations.