Statistical approach to some ill-posed problems for linear partial differential equations

For linear partial differential equations, some inverse source problems are treated statistically based on nonparametric estimation ideas. By observing the solution in a small Gaussian white noise, the kernel type of estimators is used to estimate the unknown source function and its partial derivatives.. It is proved that such estimators are consistent as the noise intensity tends to zero. Depending on the principal part of the differential operator, the optimal asymptotic rate of convergence is ascertained within a wide class of risk functions in a minimax sense. Received: 5 May 1997 / Revised version: 18 June 1998