Uniqueness and stability in determining the wave equation from a single passive boundary measurement

Abstract

This article addresses the inverse problem of simultaneously recovering both the wave speed coefficient and an unknown initial condition (acting as the source) for the multidimensional wave equation from a single passive boundary measurement. Specifically, we establish uniqueness and H\"{o}lder stability estimates for determining these parameters in the wave equation on $\mathbb{R}^3$, where only a single boundary measurement of the solution--generated by the unknown source--is available. Our work connects to thermoacoustic and photoacoustic tomography (TAT/PAT) for the physically relevant case of piecewise constant sound speeds. We significantly relax the stringent conditions previously required for resolving this problem, extending results to general classes of piecewise constant sound speeds over inclusions with unknown locations. Moreover, we do not require decay properties in time of solutions to the wave equation, which enables our study to accommodate a much broader class of unknown sources. The approach combines low frequency-domain solution representations with distinctive properties of elliptic and hyperbolic equations.