An inverse spectral problem for a damped wave operator

Abstract: This paper proposes a new and efficient numerical algorithm for recovering the damping coefficient from the spectrum of a damped wave operator, which is a classical Borg-Levinson inverse spectral problem. The algorithm is based on inverting a sequence of trace formulas, which are deduced by a recursive formula, bridging geometrical and spectrum information explicitly in terms of Fredholm integral equations. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.