The dynamical inverse problem for a nonselfadjoint Sturm-Liouville operator (Q5941910)

The authors study the problem of determining the real \(N^{2}\) matrix function \(V(x)\) with continuously differentiable elements of the wave equation system \[ u_{tt}(x,t) - u_{xx}(x,t)+V(x)u(x,t) = 0, \quad x>0,\;t\in (0,T), \] with the initial values \[ u(x,0)=u_{t}(x,0)= 0, \quad x>0, \] and boundary conditions \[ u(0,t)=f(t), \quad u_{x}(0,t) =r(t), \quad t\in (0,T), \] where \(T\) is a given positive number, \(f(t)\) is a boundary control, and \(r(t)\) is a response function. An approach to this inverse problem based on a version of the boundary control theory is suitable for the numerical solution to the considered problem. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given in the case of a smooth and symmetric response function. Results of numerical experiments are described.