Integrating the probe and singular sources methods: IV. IPS function for the Schrödinger equation

Abstract The integrated theory of the probe and singular sources methods (IPS) is developed for an inverse obstacle problem governed by the stationary Schrödinger equation in a bounded domain. The unknown obstacles are penetrable, and their surface is modeled by a part of the support of the potential in the governing equation. The main results concern an analytical detection method for these obstacles from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. They consist of three parts: a singular sources method via the probe method using a solution with higher-order singularity for the governing equation of the background medium; the discovery of an IPS function whose two ways of decomposition give us the indicator functions for both the probe and singular sources methods; a completely integrated version of both methods, which means their indicator functions coincide. Furthermore, a result on Side B of IPS is also given, concerning the blowing-up property of a sequence calculated from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map.