An inverse problem for the porous medium equation with partial data and a possibly singular absorption term (2108.12970v2)

Abstract: In this paper we prove uniqueness in the inverse boundary value problem for the three coefficient functions in the porous medium equation with an absorption term $\epsilon\partial_t u-\nabla\cdot(\gamma\nabla u^m)+\lambda u^q=0$, with $m>1$, $m^{-1}<q<\sqrt{m}$, with the space dimension 2 or higher. This is a degenerate parabolic type quasilinear PDE which has been used as a model for phenomena in fields such as gas flow (through a porous medium), plasma physics, and population dynamics. In the case when $\gamma=1$ a priori, we prove unique identifiability with data supported in an arbitrarily small part of the boundary. Even for the global problem we improve on previous work by obtaining uniqueness with a finite (rather than infinite) time of observation and also by introducing the additional absorption term $\lambda u^q$.