A novel time-domain direct sampling approach for inverse scattering problems in acoustics

Abstract: This work is concerned with an inverse scattering problem of determining unknown scatterers from time-dependent acoustic measurements. A novel time-domain direct sampling method is developed to efficiently determine both the locations and shapes of inhomogeneous media. In particular, our approach is very easy to implement since only cheap space-time integrations are involved in the evaluation of the imaging functionals. Based on the Fourier-Laplace transform, we establish an inherent connection between the time-domain and frequency-domain direct sampling method. Moreover, rigorous theoretical justifications and numerical experiments are provided to verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed method.