Self-averaging of Wigner transforms in random media

We establish the self-averaging properties of the Wigner transform of a mixture of states in the regime when the correlation length of the random medium is much longer than the wave length but much shorter than the propagation distance. The main ingredients in the proof are the error estimates for the semiclassical approximation of the Wigner transform by the solution of the Liouville equations, and the limit theorem for two-particle motion along the characteristics of the Liouville equations. The results are applied to a mathematical model of the time-reversal experiments for the acoustic waves, and self-averaging properties of the re-transmitted wave are proved

Beyond Relativism? Re-engaging Wittgenstein

Relativism is the view that there are as many worlds as there are ways of thinking and expressing the worlds that are expressed. That is to say, things are related to the ways in which we express them. Thus philosophers assert that the way we express our thoughts in language even affects the way we perceive the world. Relativism is a reaction against the view that there is one and only one way of describing the world. Therefore, relativists argue that the different conceptual abilities and habits are liable to result in different ways of seeing the world

Existence of radial solution for a quasilinear equation with singular nonlinearity

We prove that the equation \begin{eqnarray*} -\Delta_p u =\lambda\Big( \frac{1} {u^\delta} + u^q + f(u)\Big)\;\text{ in } \, B_R(0) u =0 \,\text{ on} \; \partial B_R(0), \quad u>0 \text{ in } \, B_R(0) \end{eqnarray*} admits a weak radially symmetric solution for $\lambda>0$ sufficiently small, $0<\delta<1$ and $p-1<q<p^{*}-1$. We achieve this by combining a blow-up argument and a Liouville type theorem to obtain a priori estimates for the regularized problem. Using a variant of a theorem due to Rabinowitz we derive the solution for the regularized problem and then pass to the limit.Comment: 16 page

Cauchy problem for Ultrasound Modulated EIT

Ultrasound modulation of electrical or optical properties of materials offers the possibility to devise hybrid imaging techniques that combine the high electrical or optical contrast observed in many settings of interest with the high resolution of ultrasound. Mathematically, these modalities require that we reconstruct a diffusion coefficient $\sigma(x)$ for $x\in X$, a bounded domain in \Rm^n, from knowledge of $\sigma(x)|\nabla u|^2(x)$ for $x\in X$, where $u$ is the solution to the elliptic equation $-\nabla\cdot\sigma\nabla u=0$ in $X$ with $u=f$ on $\partial X$. This inverse problem may be recast as a nonlinear equation, which formally takes the form of a 0-Laplacian. Whereas $p-$Laplacians with $p>1$ are well-studied variational elliptic non-linear equations, $p=1$ is a limiting case with a convex but not strictly convex functional, and the case $p<1$ admits a variational formulation with a functional that is not convex. In this paper, we augment the equation for the 0-Laplacian with full Cauchy data at the domain's boundary, which results in a, formally overdetermined, nonlinear hyperbolic equation. The paper presents existence, uniqueness, and stability results for the Cauchy problem of the 0-Laplacian. In general, the diffusion coefficient $\sigma(x)$ can be stably reconstructed only on a subset of $X$ described as the domain of influence of the space-like part of the boundary $\partial X$ for an appropriate Lorentzian metric. Global reconstructions for specific geometries or based on the construction of appropriate complex geometric optics solutions are also analyzed.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure