Inverse Problems and Nonlinearity Lecture Slides

Inverse Problems and Nonlinearity

Gunther Uhlmann, University of Washington, Lecturer

June 3 – 7, 2024 at Clemson University

Shitao Liu and Jeong-Rock Yoon organizers, liul@clemson.edu or jryoon@clemson.edu

website: https://sites.google.com/view/cbmsclemson2024

Inverse problems, which are interdisciplinary in nature, occur in the mathematical modeling of real-world applications where direct observations of certain properties are not possible.
While there has been much important work on inverse problems over the last few decades, most of these efforts have focused on linear PDEs or PDE systems. Contrary to the common belief that the presence of nonlinearity is an obstacle, a recent major breakthrough has shown that nonlinearity can actually be used as a tool to solve inverse problems. The series of lectures at this conference will show in detail how nonlinearity can help in a variety of inverse problems arising in nonlinear wave propagation, nonlinear analogs of Calderon’s inverse problems, nonlinear transport equations, and inverse scattering for nonlinear PDEs. The lectures along with other activities will afford opportunities for the conference participants, especially graduate students and young researchers, to discuss fundamental ideas and open problems. The regional emphasis of this conference also will strengthen the collaborations among researchers working in inverse problems
and related fields in the southeast, as well as establish new research programs.

The conference featured the Principal Lecturer Gunther Uhlmann, who is the Robert R. and Elaine F. Phelps Endowed Professor of University of Washington. Professor Uhlmann is one of the leading experts in inverse problems, and is the main leader of inverse problems community. His research topics range from rigorous mathematical analysis to real world applications, publishing more than 300 papers with numerous collaborators, and he is well known for bringing in important new problems and techniques to the math community. 
As the Principal Lecturer, Professor Uhlmann delivered ten hour long lectures focusing on a variety of inverse problems arising in nonlinear wave propagation, nonlinear analogs of Calderon’s inverse problems, nonlinear transport equations, and inverse scattering for nonlinear PDEs. Several open problems will also be formulated.

Supplementary Lectures:

presented by Yiran Wang (Emory University): Nonlinear Phenomena in X-ray Tomography

presented by Ru-Yu Lai (University  of Minnesota): Introduction to Inverse Problems for Transport Equations

Presented by Ruirui Wu (University of Washington): Calderón Problem with quasilinear anisotropic conductivity

Presented by Li Li (University of CA Irvine):  An introduction to the fractional Calderón problem

Presented by Yang Zhang (University of Washington): Inverse problems in nonlinear acoustic imaging

Videos of the main and supplementary lectures: https://www.youtube.com/@CBMSClemson2024/videos