On Exponential Instability of an Inverse Problem for the Wave Equation

Abstract For a time-independent potential $q\in L^\infty $, consider the source-to-solution operator that maps a source $f$ to the solution $u=u(t,x)$ of $(\Box +q)u=f$ in Euclidean space with an obstacle, where we impose on $u$ vanishing Cauchy data at $t=0$ and vanishing Dirichlet data at the boundary of the obstacle. We study the inverse problem of recovering the potential $q$ from this source-to-solution map restricted to some measurement domain. By giving an example where measurements take place in some subset and the support of $q$ lies in the “shadow region” of the obstacle, we show that recovery of $q$ is exponentially unstable.