An inverse problem for the Monge-Ampère equation

Abstract

We extend the study of inverse boundary value problems to the setting of fully nonlinear PDEs by considering an inverse source problem for the Monge-Ampère equation \[ \det D^2 u = F. \] We prove that, on a convex Euclidean domain in the plane, the associated Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DN) map uniquely determines a positive source function $F$. The proof relies on recovering the Hessian of a solution to the equation, which is interpreted as a Riemannian metric $g$. Interestingly, although the equation is posed on a Euclidean domain, the inverse problem becomes anisotropic since the metric $g$ appears as a coefficient matrix in the linearized equation. As an intermediate step, we prove that the DN map of the non-divergence form equation \[ g^{ab} \partial_{ab} v = 0 \] uniquely determines the conformal class of the metric $g$ on a simply connected planar domain, without the usual diffeomorphism invariance. To address the challenges of full nonlinearity, we develop asymptotic expansions for complex geometric optics solutions in the planar setting and solve a resulting nonlocal $\overline{\partial}$-equation by proving a unique continuation principle for it. These techniques are expected to be applicable to a wide range of inverse problems for nonlinear equations.