Boundary Sidewise Observability of the Wave Equation

Abstract: The wave equation on a bounded domain of $\R^{n}$ with non homogeneous boundary Dirichlet data or sources supported on a subset of the boundary is considered. We analyze the problem of observing the source out of boundary measurements done away from its support. We first show that observability inequalities may not hold unless an infinite number of derivatives are lost, due to the existence of solutions that are arbitrarily concentrated near the source. We then establish observability inequalities in Sobolev norms, under a suitable microlocal geometric condition on the support of the source and the measurement set, for sources fulfilling pseudo-differential conditions that exclude these concentration phenomena. The proof relies on microlocal arguments and is essentially based on the use of microlocal defect measures.