An inverse problem for space‐fractional backward diffusion problem

In this paper, an inverse problem for space‐fractional backward diffusion equation, which is highly ill‐posed, is considered. This problem is obtained from the classical diffusion equation by replacing the second‐order space derivative with a Riesz–Feller derivative of order α ∈ (0,2]. We show that such a problem is severely ill‐posed, and further present a simplified Tikhonov regularization method to deal with this problem. Convergence estimate is presented under a priori choice of regularization parameter. Numerical experiments are given to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Riesz–Feller space‐fractional backward diffusion problem with a time‐dependent coefficient: regularization and error estimates

In this paper, we consider a Riesz–Feller space‐fractional backward diffusion problem with a time‐dependent coefficient We show that this problem is ill‐posed; therefore, we propose a convolution regularization method to solve it. New error estimates for the regularized solution are given under a priori and a posteriori parameter choice rules, respectively. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A backward problem for the time‐fractional diffusion equation

In this paper, we are concerned with the backward problem of reconstructing the initial condition of a time‐fractional diffusion equation from interior measurements. We establish uniqueness results and provide stability analysis. Our method is based on the eigenfunction expansion of the forward solution and the Tikhonov regularization to tackle the ill‐posedness issue of the underlying inverse problem. Some numerical examples are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An iterative method for backward time‐fractional diffusion problem

The aim of this work is to solve the backward problem for a time‐fractional diffusion equation with variable coefficients in a general bounded domain. The problem is ill‐posed in L ² norm sense. An iteration scheme is proposed to obtain a regularized solution. Two kinds of convergence rates are obtained using an a priori regularization parameter choice rule and an a posteriori regularization parameter choice rule. Numerical examples in one‐dimensional and two‐dimensional cases are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 2029–2041, 2014     

Regularization of a backward problem for composite fractional relaxation equations

A backward problem for composite fractional relaxation equations is considered with Caputo's fractional derivative, which covers as particular case of Basset problem that concerns the unsteady motion of a particle accelerating in a viscous fluid in fluid dynamics. Based on a spectral problem, the representation of solutions is established. Next, we show the maximal regularity for the corresponding initial value problem. Due to the mildly ill-posedness of current backward problem, the fractional Landweber regularization method will be applied to discuss convergence analysis and error estimates.     

The quasi‐reversibility method for a final value problem of the time‐fractional diffusion equation with inhomogeneous source

This paper is devoted to discuss a multidimensional backward heat conduction problem for time‐fractional diffusion equation with inhomogeneous source. This problem is ill‐posed. We use quasi‐reversibility regularization method to solve this inverse problem. Moreover, the convergence estimates between regularization solution and the exact solution are obtained under the a priori and the a posteriori choice rules. Finally, the numerical examples for one‐dimensional and two‐dimensional cases are presented to show that our method is feasible and effective.     

A space‐time spectral method for one‐dimensional time fractional convection diffusion equations

In this paper, we propose a space‐time spectral method for solving a class of time fractional convection diffusion equations. Because both fractional derivative and spectral method have global characteristics in bounded domains, we propose a space‐time spectral‐Galerkin method. The convergence result of the method is proved by providing a priori error estimate. Numerical results further confirm the expected convergence rate and illustrate the versatility of our method. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Existence and regularity results of a backward problem for fractional diffusion equations

In this paper, we study a backward problem for an inhomogeneous fractional diffusion equation in a bounded domain. By applying the properties of Mittag‐Leffler functions and the method of eigenvalue expansion, we establish some results about the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of the mild solutions as well as the classical solutions of the proposed problem in a weighted Hölder continuous function space.     

On a backward problem for fractional diffusion equation with Riemann-Liouville derivative

In the present paper, we study the initial inverse problem (backward problem) for a two-dimensional fractional differential equation with Riemann-Liouville derivative. Our model is considered in the random noise of the given data. We show that our problem is not well-posed in the sense of Hadamard. A truncated method is used to construct an approximate function for the solution (called the regularized solution). Furthermore, the error estimate of the regularized solution in L² and H^τ norms is considered and illustrated by numerical example.     

A collocation method of lines for two‐sided space‐fractional advection‐diffusion equations with variable coefficients

We present the method of lines (MOL), which is based on the spectral collocation method, to solve space‐fractional advection‐diffusion equations (SFADEs) on a finite domain with variable coefficients. We focus on the cases in which the SFADEs consist of both left‐ and right‐sided fractional derivatives. To do so, we begin by introducing a new set of basis functions with some interesting features. The MOL, together with the spectral collocation method based on the new basis functions, are successfully applied to the SFADEs. Finally, four numerical examples, including benchmark problems and a problem with discontinuous advection and diffusion coefficients, are provided to illustrate the efficiency and exponentially accuracy of the proposed method.     

Tikhonov regularization method for a backward problem for the inhomogeneous time-fractional diffusion equation

Fractional (nonlocal) diffusion equations replace the integer-order derivatives in space and time by their fractional-order analogs and they are used to model anomalous diffusion, especially in physics. In this paper, we study a backward problem for an inhomogeneous time-fractional diffusion equation with variable coefficients in a general bounded domain. Such a backward problem is of practically great importance because we often do not know the initial density of substance, but we can observe the density at a positive moment. The backward problem is ill-posed and we propose a regularizing scheme by using Tikhonov regularization method. We also prove the convergence rate for the regularized solution by using an a priori regularization parameter choice rule. Numerical examples illustrate applicability and high accuracy of the proposed method.     

TV‐like regularization for backward parabolic problems

This paper investigates an inverse problem for parabolic equations backward in time, which is solved by total‐variation‐like (TV‐like, in abbreviation) regularization method with cost function ∥u_x∥². The existence, uniqueness and stability estimate for the regularization problem are deduced in the linear case. For numerical illustration, the variational adjoint method, which presents a simple method to derive the gradient of the optimization functional, is introduced to reconstruct the unknown initial condition for both linear and nonlinear parabolic equations. The conjugate gradient method is used to iteratively search for the optimal approximation. Numerical results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regularization of a terminal value problem for time fractional diffusion equation

In this article, we study an inverse problem with inhomogeneous source to determine an initial data from the time fractional diffusion equation. In general, this problem is ill-posed in the sense of Hadamard, so the quasi-boundary value method is proposed to solve the problem. In the theoretical results, we propose a priori and a posteriori parameter choice rules and analyze them. Finally, two numerical results in the one-dimensional and two-dimensional case show the evidence of the used regularization method.     

Fourier regularization for a final value time-fractional diffusion problem

The evolution process of fractional order describes some phenomenon of anomalous diffusion and transport dynamics in complex system. The equation containing time-fractional derivative provides a suitable mathematical model for describing such a process. The backward problem for this system, which means to recover the initial state for some slow diffusion process from its present status, is very hard to solve due to the nonlocal property of fractional derivative and the irreversibility of time. For this ill-posed problem, we construct a regularizing solution using the Fourier transform method. Both the a-priori choice strategy and the a-posteriori choice strategy for the regularizing parameter are given, with the convergence analysis on the regularizing solution. Numerical implementations are presented to show the validity of the proposed scheme.     

Identification of a time-dependent source term for a time fractional diffusion problem

In this paper, we study an inverse problem of identifying a time-dependent term of an unknown source for a time fractional diffusion equation using nonlocal measurement data. Firstly, we establish the conditional stability for this inverse problem. Then two regularization methods are proposed to for reconstructing the time-dependent source term from noisy measurements. The first method is an integral equation method which formulates the inverse source problem into an integral equation of the second kind; and a prior convergence rate of regularized solutions is derived with a suitable choice strategy of regularization parameters. The second method is a standard Tikhonov regularization method and formulates the inverse source problem as a minimizing problem of the Tikhonov functional. Based on the superposition principle and the technique of finite-element interpolation, a numerical scheme is proposed to implement the second regularization method. One- and two-dimensional examples are carried out to verify efficiency and stability of the second regularization method.     

Regularization of a backward problem for the inhomogeneous time-fractional wave equation

In this paper, we consider a backward problem for an inhomogeneous time-fractional wave equation in a general bounded domain. Such a backward problem is of practically great importance because we often do not know the initial density of substance, but we can observe the density at a positive moment. The existence and regularity for the backward problem are investigated. The backward problem is ill-posed, and we propose a regularizing scheme by using a modified regularization method. We also prove the convergence rate for the regularized solution by using some a priori regularization parameter choice rule.     

Inverse problem with a time‐integral condition for a fractional diffusion equation

We find the conditions for the unique solvability of the inverse problem for a time‐fractional diffusion equation with Schwarz‐type distributions in the right‐hand sides. This problem is to find a generalized solution of the Cauchy problem and an unknown space‐dependent part of an equation's right‐hand side under a time‐integral overdetermination condition.     

Identification of an inverse source problem for time‐fractional diffusion equation with random noise

In this paper, we consider an inverse source problem for a time fractional diffusion equation. In general, this problem is ill posed, therefore we shall construct a regularized solution using the filter regularization method in the random noise case. We will provide appropriate conditions to guarantee the convergence of the approximate solution to the exact solution. Then, we provide examples of filters in order to obtain error estimates for their approximate solutions. Finally, we present a numerical example to show efficiency of the method.     

Inverse problem for a space‐time fractional diffusion equation: Application of fractional Sturm‐Liouville operator

An inverse problem of determining a time‐dependent source term from the total energy measurement of the system (the over‐specified condition) for a space‐time fractional diffusion equation is considered. The space‐time fractional diffusion equation is obtained from classical diffusion equation by replacing time derivative with fractional‐order time derivative and Sturm‐Liouville operator by fractional‐order Sturm‐Liouville operator. The existence and uniqueness results are proved by using eigenfunction expansion method. Several special cases are discussed, and particular examples are provided.     

Variational iteration method for solving the space‐ and time‐fractional KdV equation

This paper presents numerical solutions for the space‐ and time‐fractional Korteweg–de Vries equation (KdV for short) using the variational iteration method. The space‐ and time‐fractional derivatives are described in the Caputo sense. In this method, general Lagrange multipliers are introduced to construct correction functionals for the problems. The multipliers in the functionals can be identified optimally via variational theory. The iteration method, which produces the solutions in terms of convergent series with easily computable components, requiring no linearization or small perturbation. The numerical results show that the approach is easy to implement and accurate when applied to space‐ and time‐fractional KdV equations. The method introduces a promising tool for solving many space–time fractional partial differential equations. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2007