Sharp estimates for the Neumann functions and applications to quantitative photo-acoustic imaging in inhomogeneous media

Abstract

We obtain sharp $L^p$ and H\"older estimates for the Neumann function of the operator $\nabla \cdot \gamma \nabla - ik$ on a bounded domain. We also obtain quantitative description of its singularity. We then apply these estimates to quantitative photo-acoustic imaging in inhomogeneous media. The problem is to reconstruct the optical absorption coefficient of a diametrically small anomaly from the absorbed energy density.