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Determining a Lorentzian metric from the source-to-solution map for the relativistic Boltzmann equation

Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery

In this talk, we consider the following question: Given the source to solution map for a relativistic Boltzmann equation on a known open set $V$ of a Lorentzian spacetime $(\mathbb{R}\times N,g)$, can we this data to uniquely determine the spacetime metric on an unknown region of $\mathbb{R}\times N$ We will show that the answer is yes. Precisely, we determine the metric up to conformal factor on the domain of causal influence for the set $V$. Key to our proof is that the nonlinearity in the relativistic Boltzmann equation which describes the behaviour of particle collisions captures information about a source-to-solution map for a related linearized problem. We use this relationship together with an analysis of the behaviour of particle collisions by microlocal techniques to determine the set of locations in $V$ where we first receive light signals from collisions in the unknown domain. From this data we obtain the desired diffeomorphism. The strategy of using the nonlinearity of the inverse problem as a feature with which to gain knowledge of a related linearized problem is classical (see for example [2]). In a Lorentzian setting, this technique combined with microlocal analysis first appeared in [1] in the context of a wave equation with a quadratic nonlinearity and source-to-solution data. We will briefly survey this and later related work as they provide context for our result. We will also provide some physical motivation and context for the problem we consider. The new results presented in this talk is joint work with Antti Kujanapää, Matti Lassas, and Tony Liimatainen (University of Helsinki). [1] Kuylev Y., Lassas M., Uhlmann G., Inventiones mathematicae 212.3 (2018): 781-857. [2] Sun Z., Mathematische Zeltschrift 221 (1996): 293-305.

Mathematics; Global analysis, analysis on manifolds; Dynamical systems and ergodic theory; Global analysis

video/mp4

Author affiliation: University of Helsinki

2019-10-14

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/71905

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/