Loc H. Nguyen

Dinh-Liem Nguyen, Michael V. Klibanov, Loc H. Nguyen et al.

This paper is concerned with the numerical solution to a 3D coefficient inverse problem for buried objects with multi-frequency experimental data. The measured data, which are associated with a single direction of an incident plane wave, are backscatter data for targets buried in a sandbox. These raw scattering data were collected using a microwave scattering facility at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. We develop a data preprocessing procedure and exploit a newly developed globally convergent inversion method for solving the inverse problem with these preprocessed data. It is shown that dielectric constants of the buried targets as well as their locations are reconstructed with a very good accuracy. We also prove a new analytical result which rigorously justifies an important step of the so-called "data propagation" procedure.

Dinh-Liem Nguyen, Michael V. Klibanov, Loc H. Nguyen et al.

We analyze in this paper the performance of a newly developed globally convergent numerical method for a coefficient inverse problem for the case of multi-frequency experimental backscatter data associated to a single incident wave. These data were collected using a microwave scattering facility at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The challenges for the inverse problem under the consideration are not only from its high nonlinearity and severe ill-posedness but also from the facts that the amount of the measured data is minimal and that these raw data are contaminated by a significant amount of noise, due to a non-ideal experimental setup. This setup is motivated by our target application in detecting and identifying explosives. We show in this paper how the raw data can be preprocessed and successfully inverted using our inversion method. More precisely, we are able to reconstruct the dielectric constants and the locations of the scattering objects with a good accuracy, without using any advanced \emph{a priori} knowledge of their physical and geometrical properties.

Michael V. Klibanov, Dinh-Liem Nguyen, Loc H. Nguyen

This paper is concerned with a numerical method for a 3D coefficient inverse problem with phaseless scattering data. These are multi-frequency data generated by a single direction of the incident plane wave. Our numerical procedure consists of two stages. The first stage aims to reconstruct the (approximate) scattered field at the plane of measurements from its intensity. We present an algorithm for the reconstruction process and prove a uniqueness result of this reconstruction. After obtaining the approximate scattered field, we exploit a newly developed globally convergent numerical method to solve the coefficient inverse problem with the phased scattering data. The latter is the second stage of our algorithm. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the performance of our method. Finally, we present a numerical study which aims to show that, under a certain assumption, the solution of the scattering problem for the 3D scalar Helmholtz equation can be used to approximate the component of the electric field which was originally incident upon the medium.

Michael V. Klibanov, Dinh-Liem Nguyen, Loc H. Nguyen et al.

The goal of this paper is to reconstruct spatially distributed dielectric constants from complex-valued scattered wave field by solving a 3D coefficient inverse problem for the Helmholtz equation at multi-frequencies. The data are generated by only a single direction of the incident plane wave. To solve this inverse problem, a globally convergent algorithm is analytically developed. We prove that this algorithm provides a good approximation for the exact coefficient without any \textit{a priori} knowledge of any point in a small neighborhood of that coefficient. This is the main advantage of our method, compared with classical approaches using optimization schemes. Numerical results are presented for both computationally simulated data and experimental data. Potential applications of this problem are in detection and identification of explosive-like targets.

Aleksandr E. Kolesov, Michael V. Klibanov, Loc H. Nguyen et al.

The recently developed globally convergent numerical method for an inverse medium problem for the Helmholtz equation is tested on experimental data. The data were originally collected in the time domain, whereas the method works in the frequency domain with the multi-frequency data. Due to a huge discrepancy between the collected and computationally simulated data, the straightforward Fourier transform of the experimental data does not work. Hence, it is necessary to develop a heuristic data preprocessing procedure. This procedure is described. The preprocessed data are used as the input for the inversion algorithm. Numerical results demonstrate good accuracy in the reconstruction of both refracive indices and locations of targets. Furthermore, the reconstruction errors for refractive indices of dielectric targets are significantly less than errors of a posteriori direct measurements.

Michael V. Klibanov, Hui Liu, Loc H. Nguyen

A 3-D inverse medium problem in the frequency domain is considered. Another name for this problem is Coefficient Inverse Problem. The goal is to reconstruct spatially distributed dielectric constants from scattering data. Potential applications are in detection and identification of explosive-like targets. A single incident plane wave and multiple frequencies are used. A new numerical method is proposed. A theorem is proved, which claims that a small neigborhood of the exact solution of that problem is reached by this method without any advanced knowledge of that neighborhood. We call this property of that numerical method "global convergence". Results of numerical experiments for the case of the backscattering data are presented.

Thuy T. Le, Minh-Binh Tran, Loc H. Nguyen

We study an inverse initial-density problem for a nonlinear diffusive coagulation--fragmentation equation with known coagulation and fragmentation kernels. The objective is to recover the unknown initial particle-size distribution on a finite interval from time-dependent boundary observations of the solution and its size derivative. To solve this inverse problem, we develop a globally convergent numerical method based on a Legendre--exponential time reduction and a Carleman--Picard iteration. The time reduction transforms the original problem into a nonlinear coupled system for the spatial mode coefficients, while the Carleman weight and the corresponding Carleman estimate guaranty the global convergence of the Picard iteration without requiring a good initial guess. We prove the convergence of the proposed method and obtain a complete reconstruction procedure for the initial density. Numerical experiments with noisy boundary data demonstrate that the method yields accurate and stable reconstructions for several representative test profiles.

Alexey V. Smirnov, Michael V. Klibanov, Loc H. Nguyen

A new numerical method to solve an inverse source problem for the radiative transfer equation involving the absorption and scattering terms, with incomplete data, is proposed. No restrictive assumption on those absorption and scattering coefficients is imposed. The original inverse source problem is reduced to boundary value problem for a system of coupled partial differential equations of the first order. The unknown source function is not a part of this system. Next, we write this system in the fully discrete form of finite differences. That discrete problem is solved via the quasi-reversibility method. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the regularized solution. Especially, we prove the convergence of regularized solutions to the exact one as the noise level in the data tends to zero via a new discrete Carleman estimate. Numerical simulations demonstrate good performance of this method even when the data is highly noisy.

Michael V. Klibanov, Loc H. Nguyen

A new numerical method for X-ray tomography for a specific case of incomplete Radon data is proposed. Potential applications are in checking out bulky luggage in airports. This method is based on the analysis of the transport PDE governing the X-ray tomography rather than on the conventional integral formulation. The quasi-reversibility method is applied. Convergence analysis is performed using a new Carleman estimate. Numerical results are presented and compared with the inversion of the Radon transform using the well-known filtered back projection algorithm. In addition, it is shown how to use our method to study the inversion of the attenuated X-ray transform for the same case of incomplete data.