On evolutionary inverse problems for parabolic equations (Q960671)

The paper deals with an evolutionary inverse problem for a nonlinear partial differential equation. The equation \[ r(x,t) \frac{\partial u}{\partial t} - L_0 u= a(x,t,u,\nabla u); \;\;(x,t) \in G \times (0,T), \;G \subset\mathbb R^n \] is considered with the initial and boundary conditions \[ u|_{t=0}=u_0(x); \;u|_S=\varphi(x,t); \;S=\Gamma \times (0,T); \Gamma=\partial G. \] Here \(L_0\) is a linear differential operator of a specific form. The task is to find several coefficients of the original equation and the solution \(u(x,t)\) that satisfies the above initial and boundary conditions and additional overdetermination conditions. Local and global existence and uniqueness theorems for the solution to the problem under consideration are established. The results improve previous studies which considered linear or the simplest quasilinear cases or one-dimensional case [see, e.g. \textit{A. I. Prilepko, D. G. Orlovsky} and \textit{I. A. Vasin}, Methods for solving inverse problems in mathematical physics. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker (2000; Zbl 0947.35173)].