On uniqueness of obstacles and boundary conditions from restricted dynamical and scattering data (Q939209)

In this paper, simultaneous identification of both an unknown obstacle and the boundary condition on it is investigated. Let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 2\), be a convex bounded domain with boundary \(\partial\Omega\in\mathbb{C}^2\) and let \(D\) be an unknown obstacle compactly contained in \(\Omega\), i.e. \(\overline D\subset\Omega\), with connected \(\Omega\setminus\overline D\) and with boundary \(\partial D\in\mathbb{C}^2\). Let \(0< T\leq\infty\). Consider the problem \[ \partial_tu-\Delta u=0\qquad\text{on }(\Omega\setminus\overline D)\times (0,T),\tag{1} \] \[ u= 0\qquad\text{on }(\Omega\setminus\overline D)\times \{0\},\tag{2} \] \[ \partial_\nu u= g_1\qquad\text{on }\partial\Omega\times (0,T),\tag{3} \] \[ \partial_\nu u- bu= 0\qquad\text{on }\partial D\times (0,T),\tag{4} \] \[ u= g_0\qquad\text{on }\Gamma\times (0,T),\tag{5} \] where \(\Gamma\) is an (relatively) open nonvoid subset of \(\partial\Omega\). In (3), \(g_1\), \(\partial_t g_1\in L_2((0,T); H_{({1\over 2})}(\partial\Omega))\), \(g_1= 0\) on \(\partial\Omega\times\{0\}\), \(g_1\) is independent of \(t\) on some interval \((T_1,T)\) with \(0< T_1< T\), and \(g_1\neq 0\) near any point of \(\Gamma\times(0, t_0)\) for all \(t_0\in (0,T]\). It is proved that the inverse problem (1)--(5) can have at most one solution \((u,D,b)\) with \(b\in C^1(\partial D)\), \(b\geq 0\), and \(\partial^{\alpha_0}_t \partial^\alpha u\in L_2((\Omega\setminus\overline D)\times (0,T))\), when \(2\alpha_0+ |\alpha|\leq 2\). Similar uniqueness results are proved for the wave equaiton and inverse scattering problems.