Ill-posed problems with unbounded operators (Q854065)

The paper deals with the equation \(Au=f\quad (1)\), where \(A\) is a linear, closed, densely defined, unbounded operator in a Hilbert space \(H\). The range of \(A\) is not closed, so problem (1) is ill-posed. Such problems have been studied in the literature, mostly for bounded linear operators \(A\). The following results are proved in the paper: 1) the variational regularization functional \(F(u):=\|Au-f\|^2+a\|u\|^2\) attains its unique global minimum at the element \(u_a=A^*Q_a^{-1}f\), where \(a=const>0\), \(Q:=AA^*\) is a selfadjoint operator in \(H\), \(D(AA^*)\subset D(A^*)\), \(Q_a:=Q+aI\), the operator \(A^*Q_a^{-1}\) is bounded, defined on all of \(H\), with norm \(\frac 1 {2a^{1/2}}\). The boundedness of the operator \(A^*Q_a^{-1}\) is a consequence of the classical von Neumann's theorem. 2) If \(f=Ay\), and \(y\) is orthogonal to \(N(A)\), the null space of \(A\), then \(\lim_{a\to 0}\|u_a-y\|=0\). 3) If \(\|f_\delta -f\|<\delta,\,\, f=Ay\), and \(F_\delta(u):=\|Au-f_\delta\|^2+a\|u\|^2\), then there exists a unique global minimizer \(u_{a,\delta}\) of \(F_\delta(u)\), the equation \(\|Au_{a,\delta}-f_\delta\|=c\delta, \,\, c=const\in (1,2),\) \(\|f_\delta\|>c\delta\), has a unique solution \(a=a(\delta)>0\), \(\lim_{\delta\to 0}a(\delta)=0\), and \(\lim_{\delta\to 0}\|u_\delta-y\|=0\), where \(u_\delta:=u_{a(\delta),\delta}\). 4) Let \(T:=A^*A\) be a selfadjoint operator, \(D(T)\subset D(A)\), \(T_a:=T+aI\). The operator \(T_a^{-1}A^*\) with domain \(D(A^*)\), is closable, its closure is a bounded operator, defined on all of \(H\), with norm \(\frac 1 {2a^{1/2}}\). One has \(T_a^{-1}A^*=A^*Q_a^{-1}\) on all of \(H\). These results allow one to prescribe a clear sense to the basic equation \(T_au=A^*f_\delta\) of variational regularization, in the case of unbounded, closed, densely defined operator \(A\), for any \(f_\delta\in H\), and not only for \(f_\delta \in D(A^*)\). The dynamical systems method (DSM) for stable solution of equation (1) is justified for unbounded closed densely defined linear operator \(A\).