Variational method for a backward problem for a time-fractional diffusion equation

Wei, Ting; Xian, Jun

ESAIM: Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis , Tome 53 (2019) no. 4, pp. 1223-1244.

Suite au passage du modèle économique de la revue en S20, le texte intégral des articles des années 2019 et 2020 est accessible uniquement sur le site de l'éditeur et est réservé aux abonnés.

This paper is devoted to solve a backward problem for a time-fractional diffusion equation by a variational method. The regularity of a weak solution for the direct problem as well as the existence and uniqueness of a weak solution for the adjoint problem are proved. We formulate the backward problem into a variational problem by using the Tikhonov regularization method, and obtain an approximation to the minimizer of the variational problem by using a conjugate gradient method. Four numerical examples in one-dimensional and two-dimensional cases are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

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