Problem of determining the permittivity in the stationary system of Maxwell equations

Abstract

The stationary system of Maxwell equations for a unmagnetized nonconducting medium is considered. For this system, the problem of determining the permittivity ε from given electric or magnetic fields is studied. It is assumed that the electromagnetic field is induced by a plane wave coming from infinity in the direction ν. It is also assumed that the permittivity is different from a given positive constant ε₀ only inside a compact domain Ω ⊂ R³ with a smooth boundary S. To find ε inside Ω, the solution of the corresponding direct problem for the system of electrodynamic equations on the shadow portion of the boundary of Ω is specified for all frequencies starting at some fixed ω₀ and for all ν. The high-frequency asymptotics of the solution to the direct problem is studied. It is shown that the information specified makes it possible to reduce the original problem to the well-known inverse kinematic problem of determining the refraction coefficient inside Ω from the traveling times of an electromagnetic wave. This leads to a uniqueness theorem for the solution of the problem under consideration and opens up the opportunity of its constructive solution.