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We introduce a time-dimensional reduction method for the inverse source problem in linear elasticity, where the goal is to reconstruct the initial displacement and velocity fields from partial boundary measurements of elastic wave propagation. The key idea is to employ a novel spectral representation in time, using an orthonormal basis composed of Legendre polynomials weighted by exponential functions. This Legendre polynomial-exponential basis enables a stable and accurate decomposition in the time variable, effectively reducing the original space-time inverse problem to a sequence of coupled spatial elasticity systems that no longer depend on time. These resulting systems are solved using the quasi-reversibility method. On the theoretical side, we establish a convergence theorem ensuring the stability and consistency of the regularized solution obtained by the quasi-reversibility method as the noise level tends to zero. On the computational side, two-dimensional numerical experiments confirm the theory and demonstrate the method's ability to accurately reconstruct both the geometry and amplitude of the initial data, even under substantial measurement noise. The results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed framework as a robust and computationally efficient strategy for inverse elastic source problems.
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This content will become publicly available on June 25, 2026
Inverse initial data reconstruction for Maxwell's equations via time-dimensional reduction method
We study an inverse problem for the time-dependent Maxwell system in an inhomogeneous and anisotropic medium. The objective is to recover the initial electric field $$\mathbf{E}_0$$ in a bounded domain $$\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^3$$, using boundary measurements of the electric field and its normal derivative over a finite time interval. Informed by practical constraints, we adopt an under-determined formulation of Maxwell's equations that avoids the need for initial magnetic field data and charge density information. To address this inverse problem, we develop a time-dimension reduction approach by projecting the electric field onto a finite-dimensional Legendre polynomial-exponential basis in time. This reformulates the original space-time problem into a sequence of spatial systems for the projection coefficients. The reconstruction is carried out using the quasi-reversibility method within a minimum-norm framework, which accommodates the inherent non-uniqueness of the under-determined setting. We prove a convergence theorem that ensures the quasi-reversibility solution approximates the true solution as the noise and regularization parameters vanish. Numerical experiments in a fully three-dimensional setting validate the method's performance. The reconstructed initial electric field remains accurate even with $$10\%$$ noise in the data, demonstrating the robustness and applicability of the proposed approach to realistic inverse electromagnetic problems.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2208159
- PAR ID:
- 10612300
- Publisher / Repository:
- preprint arXiv:2506.20777
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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