Output error minimizing back and forth nudging method for initial state recovery

Abstract: We show that for linear dynamical systems with skew-adjoint generators, the initial state estimate given by the back and forth nudging method with colocated feedback, converges to the minimizer of the discrepancy between the measured and simulated outputs - given that the observer gains are chosen suitably and the system is exactly observable. If the system's generator A is essentially skew-adjoint and dissipative (with not too much dissipation), the colocated feedback has to be corrected by the operator e^{At}e^{A*t} in order to obtain such convergence. In some special cases, a feasible approximation for this operator can be found analytically. The case with wave equation with constant dissipation will be demonstrated.