Inverse boundary value problem for the Helmholtz equation: Multi-level approach and iterative reconstruction

Abstract: We study the inverse boundary value problem for the Helmholtz equation using the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map at selected frequency as the data. We develop an explicit reconstruction of the wavespeed using a multi-level nonlinear projected steepest descent iterative scheme in Banach spaces. We consider wavespeeds containing discontinuities. A conditional Lipschitz stability estimate for the inverse problem holds for wavespeeds of the form of a linear combination of piecewise constant functions with an underlying domain partitioning, and gives a framework in which the scheme converges. The stability constant grows exponentially as the number of subdomains in the domain partitioning increases. To mitigate this growth of the stability constant, we introduce hierarchical compressive approximations of the solution to the inverse problem with piecewise constant functions. We establish an optimal bound of the stability constant, which leads to a condition on the compression rate pertaining to these approximations.