Determination of a Nonlinear Coefficient in a Time-Fractional Diffusion Equation

Abstract

In this paper, we study direct and inverse problems for a nonlinear time fractional diffusion equation. We prove that the direct problem has a unique weak solution and the solution depends continuously on the coefficient. Then we show that the inverse problem has a quasi-solution. The direct problem is solved by the method of lines using an operator approach. A quasi-Newton optimization method is used for the numerical solution to the inverse problem. The Tikhonov regularization is used to overcome the ill-posedness of the inverse problem. Numerical examples with noise-free and noisy data illustrate the applicability and accuracy of the proposed method to some extent.

Keywords

• fractional diffusion
• inverse problem
• quasi-solution
• existence and uniqueness
• method of lines