The method of approximate inverse: Theory and applications (Q880592)

Inverse problems, where one would like to find causes for observed effects, appear naturally in many areas of science and engineering, specially when one is engaged with problems where indirect measurements are involved. One of the characteristic features of such inverse problems is that they are ill-posed, in the sense that, a unique solution which depends continuously on the data is not available. Thus, conventional approaches to obtain stable approximate solutions do not work. The theory of regularization is an emerging and hotly pursued branch of applicable mathematics in which the main thrust is to devise and analyze stable approximation procedures for ill-posed problems. The book under review, which deals with a particular class of regularization methods, the so called \textit{method of approximate inverse}, is the result of continuous study of the author for more than a decade, by himself for his habilitation thesis and also in collaborations with many experts in the field, including A. K. Louis (his own teacher), A. Rieder and many others. The method of approximate inverse had its origin in a paper of \textit{A. K. Louis} and \textit{P. Maass} [Inverse Probl. 6, No.~3, 427--440 (1990 (1990; Zbl 0713.65040)], then called as \textit{mollifier method}, and later developed as a class of regularization by \textit{A. K. Louis} [ibid. 12, No.~2, 175--190 (1996; Zbl 0851.65036)], and further developed by the author of this monograph and his collaborators in an operator theoretic setting. The reviewer in collaboration with his student Shinelal also made some contributions to this field. The main feature of the method of approximate inverse is that a regularized solution is obtained as a result of the evaluation of a certain functional at the inexact data, without having to solve regularized equations repeatedly as the data change. As the author rightly states, the book is a comprehensive treatment of the theoretical aspects of the method as well as its applications to different inverse problems arising in \textit{medical imaging} and \textit{non-destructive testing}. The book consists of nineteen chapters divided into four parts dealing with various aspects such as inverse and semi-discrete problems, applications to 3-D-Doppler tomography, applications to the spherical mean operator, and further applications. No doubt, the book is a good addition to the literature on regularization of ill-posed inverse problems.