Reconstruction of generic anisotropic stiffness tensors from partial data around one polarization

arXiv2307.03312MaRDI QIDQ6442903FDOQ6442903

Authors: Maarten V. De Hoop, Joonas Ilmavirta, M. Lassas, Anthony Várilly-Alvarado 

Publication date: 6 July 2023

Abstract: We study inverse problems in anisotropic elasticity using tools from algebraic geometry. The singularities of solutions to the elastic wave equation in dimension $n$ with an anisotropic stiffness tensor have propagation kinematics captured by so-called slowness surfaces, which are hypersurfaces in the cotangent bundle of $mathbb{R}^n$ that turn out to be algebraic varieties. Leveraging the algebraic geometry of families of slowness surfaces we show that, for tensors in a dense open subset in the space of all stiffness tensors, a small amount of data around one polarization in an individual slowness surface uniquely determines the entire slowness surface and its stiffness tensor. Such partial data arises naturally from geophysical measurements or geometrized versions of seismic inverse problems. Additionally, we explain how the reconstruction of the stiffness tensor can be carried out effectively, using Gr"obner bases. Our uniqueness results fail for very symmetric (e.g., fully isotropic) materials, evidencing the counterintuitive claim that inverse problems in elasticity can become more tractable with increasing asymmetry.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Inverse problems in geophysics (86A22) Fibrations, degenerations in algebraic geometry (14D06) Topology of real algebraic varieties (14P25) Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Software, source code, etc. for problems pertaining to algebraic geometry (14-04) Mathematical modeling or simulation for problems pertaining to geophysics (86-10)

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