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This paper addresses the challenging and interesting inverse problem of reconstructing the spatially varying dielectric constant of a medium from phaseless backscattering measurements generated by single-point illumination. The underlying mathematical model is governed by the three-dimensional Helmholtz equation, and the available data consist solely of the magnitude of the scattered wave field. To address the nonlinearity and servere ill-posedness of this phaseless inverse scattering problem, we introduce a robust, globally convergent numerical framework combining several key regularization strategies. Our method first employs a phase retrieval step based on the Wentzel--Kramers--Brillouin (WKB) ansatz, where the lost phase information is reconstructed by solving a nonlinear optimization problem. Subsequently, we implement a Fourier-based dimension reduction technique, transforming the original problem into a more stable system of elliptic equations with Cauchy boundary conditions. To solve this resulting system reliably, we apply the Carleman convexification approach, constructing a strictly convex weighted cost functional whose global minimizer provides an accurate approximation of the true solution. Numerical simulations using synthetic data with high noise levels demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method, confirming its capability to accurately recover both the geometric location and contrast of hidden scatterers. 

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. 

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. 

This paper addresses the inverse scattering problem in a domain $$\Omega$$. The input data, measured outside $$\Omega$$, involve the waves generated by the interaction of plane waves with various directions and unknown scatterers that are fully occluded inside $$\Omega$$. The output of this problem is the spatial dielectric constant of these scatterers. Our approach to solving this problem consists of two primary stages. Initially, we eliminate the unknown dielectric constant from the governing equation, resulting in a system of partial differential equations. Subsequently, we develop the Carleman contraction mapping method to effectively tackle this system. It is noteworthy to highlight the robustness of this method. It does not require a precise initial guess of the true solution, and its computational cost is relatively inexpensive. Some numerical examples are presented. 

The aim of this paper is to solve an important inverse source problem which arises from the well-known inverse scattering problem. We propose to truncate the Fourier series of the solution to the governing equation with respect to a special basis of L2. By this, we obtain a system of linear elliptic equations. Solutions to this system are the Fourier coefficients of the solution to the governing equation. After computing these Fourier coefficients, we can directly find the desired source function. Numerical examples are presented. 

The reconstruction of physical properties of a medium from boundary measurements, known as inverse scattering problems, presents significant challenges. The present study aims to validate a newly developed convexification method for a 3D coefficient inverse problem in the case of buried unknown objects in a sandbox, using experimental data collected by a microwave scattering facility at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Our study considers the formulation of a coupled quasilinear elliptic system based on multiple frequencies. The system can be solved by minimizing a weighted Tikhonov-like functional, which forms our convexification method. Theoretical results related to the convexification are also revisited in this work. 

Understanding and accurately predicting within-field spatial variability of crop yield play a key role in site-specific management of crop inputs such as irrigation water and fertilizer for optimized crop production. However, such a task is challenged by the complex interaction between crop growth and environmental and managerial factors, such as climate, soil conditions, tillage, and irrigation. In this paper, we present a novel Spatial-temporal Multi-Task Learning algorithm for within-field crop yield prediction in west Texas from 2001 to 2003. This algorithm integrates multiple heterogeneous data sources to learn different features simultaneously, and to aggregate spatial-temporal features by introducing a weighted regularizer to the loss functions. Our comprehensive experimental results consistently outperform the results of other conventional methods, and suggest a promising approach, which improves the landscape of crop prediction research fields. 

Water is a critical natural resource that has significant impacts on human living and society. Growing population and energy consumption exacerbate the scarcity of water and our ability to manage this resource. This demonstration paper presents WaterScope, a smart and connected platform for water resource management, which integrates multiple data sources such as water level data, social media data, and water-related articles. Furthermore, the tool enables forecasting underground water levels, identifying water concerns, sharing knowledge and expertise among stakeholders, and thus bringing new insights to our understanding and insights of the water supplies and resource management. The prototype engages water stakeholders who face problems of similar nature but deal with the problem in an ad-hoc and isolated manner. The interactive WaterScope platform targets creating an interconnected virtual community that aims to improve water supply resilience.