On the data completion problem and the inverse obstacle problem with partial Cauchy data for Laplace’s equation

Abstract

We study the inverse problem of obstacle detection for Laplace’s equation with partial Cauchy data. The strategy used is to reduce the inverse problem into the minimization of a cost-type functional: the Kohn–Vogelius functional. Since the boundary conditions are unknown on an inaccessible part of the boundary, the variables of the functional are the shape of the inclusion but also the Cauchy data on the inaccessible part. Hence we first focus on recovering these boundary conditions, i.e. on the data completion problem. Due to the ill-posedness of this problem, we regularize the functional through a Tikhonov regularization. Then we obtain several theoretical properties for this data completion problem, as convergence properties, in particular when data are corrupted by noise. Finally we propose an algorithm to solve the inverse obstacle problem with partial Cauchy data by minimizing the Kohn–Vogelius functional. Thus we obtain the gradient of the functional computing both the derivatives with respect to the missing data and to the shape. Several numerical experiences are shown to discuss the performance of the algorithm.