An inverse problem for the p-Laplacian: boundary determination

Abstract: We study an inverse problem for nonlinear elliptic equations modelled after the p-Laplacian. It is proved that the boundary values of a conductivity coefficient are uniquely determined from boundary measurements given by a nonlinear Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. The result is constructive and local, and gives a method for determining the coefficient at a boundary point from measurements in a small neighborhood. The proofs work with the nonlinear equation directly instead of being based on linearization. In the complex valued case we employ complex geometrical optics type solutions based on p-harmonic exponentials, while for the real case we use p-harmonic functions first introduced by Wolff.