An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Inverse Problems

This graduate-level textbook introduces the reader to the area of inverse problems, vital to many fields including geophysical exploration, system identification, nondestructive testing, and ultrasonic tomography. It aims to expose the basic notions and difficulties encountered with ill-posed problems, analyzing basic properties of regularization methods for ill-posed problems via several simple analytical and numerical examples. The book also presents three special nonlinear inverse problems in detail: the inverse spectral problem, the inverse problem of electrical impedance tomography (EIT), and the inverse scattering problem. The corresponding direct problems are studied with respect to existence, uniqueness, and continuous dependence on parameters. Ultimately, the text discusses theoretical results as well as numerical procedures for the inverse problems, including many exercises and illustrations to complement coursework in mathematics and engineering.