Can you hear the shape of a drum? No. In this book, the authors ask, “Can you see the force on a drum?”

Hald and McLaughlin prove that for almost all rectangles the potential in a Schrödinger equation is uniquely determined (up to an additive constant) by a subset of the nodal lines. They derive asymptotic expansions for a rich set of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. Using only the nodal line positions, they establish an approximate formula for the potential and give error bounds.

The theory is appropriate for a graduate topics course in analysis with emphasis on inverse problems.

Features:

• The formulas that solve the inverse problem are very simple and easy to state.
• Nodal Line Patterns–Chaldni Patterns–are shown to be a rich source of data for the inverse problem.
• The data in this book is used to establish a simple formula that is the solution of an inverse problem.

Readership

Undergraduates studying PDEs, graduate students, and research mathematicians interested in analysis with emphasis on inverse problems.