SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Vol.46, No.5, 1849-1881, 2007
Stability of discontinuous diffusion coefficients and initial conditions in an inverse problem for the heat equation
We consider the heat equation with a discontinuous diffusion coefficient and give uniqueness and stability results for both the diffusion coefficient and the initial condition from a measurement of the solution on an arbitrary part of the boundary and at some arbitrary positive time. The key ingredient is the derivation of a Carleman-type estimate. The diffusion coefficient is assumed to be discontinuous across an interface with a monotonicity condition.
Keywords:parabolic equations;Carleman estimates;inverse problem;stability estimate;discontinuous coefficients