Inversion of the attenuated geodesic X-ray transform over functions and vector fields on simple surfaces

Abstract

We derive explicit reconstruction formulas for the attenuated geodesic X-ray transform over functions and, in the case of non-vanishing attenuation, vector fields, on a class of simple Riemannian surfaces with boundary. These formulas partly rely on new explicit approaches to construct continuous right-inverses for backprojection operators (and, in turn, holomorphic integrating factors), which were previously unavailable in a systematic form. The reconstruction of functions is presented in two ways, the latter one being motivated by numerical considerations and successfully implemented at the end. Constructing the right-inverses mentioned require that certain Fredholm equations, first appearing in [Pestov-Uhlmann, IMRN 2004], be invertible. Whether this last condition reduces the applicability of the overall approach to a strict subset of simple surfaces remains open at present.