Workshop on Coupled-Physics Inverse Problems

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

The workshop will be organized in partnership with the center of Modelamiento Matemático (CMM) of the University of Chile in Santiago and will be held Jan. 3-5, 2013 at CMM in Santiago, Chile. The organizers are Matias Courdurier from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Jaime Ortega and Axel Osses from CMM and Gunther Uhlmann from the University of Washington. The focus of the conference will be on "coupled-physics" or "hybrid" imaging modalities that have received a lot of attention in recent years due to the great promises they hold for medical imaging and other fields. By combining two or three different types of waves (or physical fields) these methods overcome limitations of classical tomography techniques and deliver otherwise unavailable, potentially life-saving diagnostic information. Among these methods are the Thermoacoustic Tomography (TAT), Photo-Acoustic Tomography (PAT), Ultrasound Modulated Optical and Impedance Tomographies (UMOT, UMEIT), Magneto-Acousto-Electric Tomography (MAET) and several other modalities combining magnetic fields with ultrasound scanning of the tissue. Closely related to these methods are so-called combined physics modalities such as Current Density Imaging and Elastography. Besides medical imaging there has been also recent interest on coupled-physics inverse methods in oil exploration in particular on the Seismo-electric effect. One of the goals of this workshop is to give the participants, in particular junior mathematicians, the opportunity of learning the state of the art in research on coupled-physics inverse problems and discuss future directions and problems. Another goal is to foster the interaction between researchers in inverse problems in Chile, the US and other countries of Latin America, and to also have increased interaction between junior and senior researchers in these fields.