Observability inequalities for transport equations through Carleman estimates

Abstract

We consider the transport equation \ppp_t u(x,t) + H(t)\cdot \nabla u(x,t) = 0 in \OOO\times(0,T), where $T>0$ and \OOO\subset \R^d is a bounded domain with smooth boundary \ppp\OOO. First, we prove a Carleman estimate for solutions of finite energy with piecewise continuous weight functions. Then, under a further condition which guarantees that the orbits of $H$ intersect \ppp\OOO, we prove an energy estimate which in turn yields an observability inequality. Our results are motivated by applications to inverse problems.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure