Diagonal operator on sequence space Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A diagonal operator on acts coordinatewise as . It is bounded when is bounded, while its inverse on its image is bounded only when the nonzero are bounded away from zero.
The nullspace in the Fourier diffraction theorem already prevents uniqueness, and the rapid decay of evanescent high-frequency information prevents stable recovery. Both make this an ill-posed inverse problem.
Let be the linear Born approximation operators mapping a real contrast supported in a known region to the measured fields on the two observation planes. For data , a suitable Tikhonov reconstruction from two-plane scattering data minimizes
A Sobolev norm penalty can instead express a smoothness preference. Reality, known support and can be imposed as constraints. For the unconstrained complex Hilbert-space problem with the displayed quadratic penalty, write and . Its Tikhonov normal equation is
Tikhonov regularization selects a stable preferred estimate; it does not establish that the original two-plane data uniquely determine the true contrast.