On the Regularization Method to Stable Approximate Solution of Equations of the First Kind with Unbounded Operators

Abstract

Let A:D( A )⊂X→Y be a linear, closed, densely defined unbounded operator, where X and Y are Hilbert spaces. Assume that A is not boundedly invertible. If equation (1) Au=f is solvable, and ‖ f δ −f ‖≤δ then the following results are provided: Problem F α,δ ( u ):= ‖ Au− f δ ‖ 2 +α ‖ u ‖ 2 has a unique global minimizer u α,δ for any f δ ∈Y , and u α,δ = A * ( A A * +α I Y ) −1 f δ . Then there is a function α( δ ) , lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 such that lim δ→0 ‖ u α( δ ),δ − x 0 ‖=0 , where x 0 is the unique minimal-norm solution to (1). In this paper we introduce the regularization method solving Equation (1) with A being a linear, closed, densely defined unbounded operator. At the same time, an application is given to the weak derivative operator equation.

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Kinh, N. (2025) On the Regularization Method to Stable Approximate Solution of Equations of the First Kind with Unbounded Operators. Open Journal of Optimization, 14, 1-9. doi: 10.4236/ojop.2025.141001.

1. Introduction

Let A:D( A )⊂X→Y be a linear, closed, densely defined unbounded operator, where X and Y are Hilbert spaces. Consider the equation

Au=f (1)

Problem finding approximate solution of (1) is called ill-posed (instability) in the sense of Hadamard [1] if A is not boundedly invertible. This may happen if the null space N( A )={ u:Au=0 } is not trivial, i.e., A is not injective, or if A is injective but A −1 is unbounded, i.e., the range of A , R( A ) is not closed [2].

If ‖ A ‖<∞ , and f δ , the noisy data, are given

‖ f δ −f ‖≤δ (2)

problem finding approximate solution of (1) has been extensively studied in the literature in detail [2]-[6] and references therein.

If A is a linear, closed, densely defined operator or is a linear unbounded operator, problem finding approximate solution of (1) has been some recent research [7]-[13], however, there are still many open problems such as parameter choice rules of regularization...

Our aim is to study problem finding approximate of (1) when unbounded operator A is a linear, closed, densely defined and the noisy data f δ satisfies (2). We shall introduce the regularization method for solving the problem, and introduce a priori and a posteriori parameter choice rules of regularization; at the same time give an application to the weak derivative operator equation in Hilbert space of measurable functions, Lebesgue squares integrable L 2 [ 0,1 ] .

2. The Some Main Results

Lemma 1. [2] Let A:D( A )⊂X→Y be a linear, closed, densely defined operator, where X and Y are Hilbert spaces, then

1) the operators T= A * A and Q=A A * are densely defined, self-adjoint;

2) A * is closed, densely defined and A ** =A ;

3) the operators A ˜ := ( I X + A * A ) −1 :X→X , A A ˜ :X→Y are both defined on all of X and are bounded, σ( A ˜ )⊆[ 0,1 ] , with I X be the identity mapping on X . Also, A ˜ is self-adjoint;

4) the operator A ^ := ( I Y +A A * ) −1 :Y→Y is bounded and self-adjoint and A * A ^ :Y→X is bounded, with I Y be the identity mapping on Y .

Lemma 2. Let A:D( A )⊂X→Y be a linear, closed, densely defined operator, where X and Y are Hilbert spaces, if Equation (1) is solvable then minimal-norm solution of (1) is unique, we denote by x 0 , furthermore x 0 ⊥N( A ) .

Proof. Because A:D( A )⊂X→Y is a linear operator, the set of solutions of (1) is a convex set in the Hilbert space X , which we denote by X 0 . Furthermore, A is a closed operator then X 0 is a closed set. Indeed, suppose x n ∈ X 0 , x n →x . Because, x n ∈ X 0 , then A x n =f,∀n . Therefore, A x n →f , then x∈D( A ) and Ax=f or x∈ X 0 . So, X 0 is a closed set in Hilbert X .

Because X 0 is a convex, closed set in Hilbert X , so it contains only one element with minimal norm x 0 [4] and x 0 ⊥N( A ) [4].

Theorem 1. For any f∈Y , the problem

F α ( u )= ‖ Au−f ‖ 2 +α ‖ u ‖ 2 →min,α=const>0, (3)

has a unique solution u α = A * ( A A * +α I Y ) −1 f , where I Y is the identity operator on Y .

Proof. Consider the equation

( A A * +α I Y ) w α =f,α=const>0 (4)

which is uniquely solvable w α = ( A A * +α I Y ) −1 f (Lemma 1). Let u α = A * w α then

A u α =A A * ( A A * +α I Y ) −1 f =( A A * +α I Y ) ( A A * +α I Y ) −1 f−α I Y ( A A * +α I Y ) −1 f =f−α w α ,

or

A u α −f=−α w α .

We have

F α ( u+v )= ‖ A( u+v )−f ‖ 2 +α ‖ u+v ‖ 2 = ‖ ( Au−f )+Av ‖ 2 +α ‖ u+v ‖ 2 = ‖ Au−f ‖ 2 + ‖ Av ‖ 2 +2Re〈 Au−f,Av 〉+α( ‖ u ‖ 2 + ‖ v ‖ 2 +2Re〈 u,v 〉 ) = ‖ Au−f ‖ 2 + ‖ Av ‖ 2 +α( ‖ u ‖ 2 + ‖ v ‖ 2 )+2Re( 〈 Au−f,Av 〉+α〈 u,v 〉 ) (5)

for any v∈D( A ) . If u= u α , then

〈 A u α −f,Av 〉+α〈 u α ,v 〉=−α〈 w α ,Av 〉+α〈 u α ,v 〉 =−α A * 〈 w α ,v 〉+α〈 u α ,v 〉 =−α〈 u α ,v 〉+α〈 u α ,v 〉=0. (6)

Thus (5) and (6) imply

F α ( u α +v )= F α ( u α )+ ‖ Av ‖ 2 +α ‖ v ‖ 2 ≥ F α ( u α )

and F( u α +v )=F( u α ) if and only if v=0 , so u α is the unique minimizer of F α ( u ) .

Theorem 1 is proved.

Theorem 2. If x 0 is the unique minimal-norm solution of (1) and u α is the unique minimizer of F α ( u ) then

lim α→0 ‖ u α − x 0 ‖=0,  with   u α = A * ( A A * +α I Y ) −1 f. (7)

Proof. Write (4) as A( A * w α − x 0 )=−α w α . Apply A * , which is possible because w α ∈D( A * ) , we obtain

A * A( u α − x 0 )=−α u α . (8)

Multiply (8) by u α − x 0 , we obtain

〈 A * A( u α − x 0 ), u α − x 0 〉=−α〈 u α , u α − x 0 〉

or

‖ A( u α − x 0 ) ‖ 2 =−α( ‖ u α ‖ 2 − u α , x 0 ). (9)

Since α>0 this implies

‖ u α ‖ 2 ≤〈 u α , x 0 〉,

So

‖ u α ‖≤‖ x 0 ‖,∀α>0.

Therefore, one may assume (taking a subsequence) that the sequence u α weakly converges to an element z , denoted by u n := u α n ⇀z , as α n →0 .

It follows from (9) that

lim n→∞ ‖ A( u n − x 0 ) ‖=0,  i.e.   lim n→∞ ‖ A u n −f ‖=0.

We shall prove that z= x 0 .

Let γ run through the set such that { A * Aγ } is dense in N ⊥ , where N:=N( A ) . Note that N( T )=N( A ) , where T= A * A [2].

Because of the formulas X= R( T ) ¯ ⊕N( T ) [2], then { γ }=D( T ) is dense in X , and the set { Tγ } is dense in N ⊥ .

Multiply the equation T( u α − x 0 )=−α u α by γ and pass to the limit α→0 . We obtain

( z− x 0 ,Tγ )=0.

We have x 0 ⊥N . If z⊥N, then z− x 0 ⊥N and z− x 0 ⊥ N ⊥ , so z− x 0 =0.

One may always assume that z⊥N because T u α =T u α ˜ , where u α ˜ is the orthogonal projection of u α onto N ⊥ .

Since the sequence { u n } converges weakly to z , and ‖ u n ‖≤‖ x 0 ‖ , so lim n→∞ ‖ u n − x 0 ‖=0 [14].

For convenience for the reader, we prove this claim as follows:

Since u n := u α n ⇀z , one gets ‖ x 0 ‖≤ lim _ n→∞ ‖ u n ‖ . The inequality ‖ u n ‖≤‖ x 0 ‖ implies lim ¯ n→∞ ‖ u n ‖≤‖ x 0 ‖ . Therefore lim n→∞ ‖ u n ‖=‖ x 0 ‖ . This and the weakly converge u n := u α n ⇀z imply strong convergence

‖ u n − x 0 ‖ 2 = ‖ u n ‖ 2 + ‖ x 0 ‖ 2 −2Re〈 u n , x 0 〉→0,  as  n→∞.

Theorem 2 is proved.

Theorem 3. If ‖ f δ −f ‖≤δ , x 0 is the unique minimal-norm solution of (1), and

F α,δ ( u )= ‖ Au− f δ ‖ 2 +α ‖ u ‖ 2 =min, (10)

then there exists a unique global minimizer u α,δ to (10) and lim δ→0 ‖ u δ − x 0 ‖=0 , where u δ := u α( δ ),δ and α( δ ) is properly chosen, in particular lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 .

Proof. The existence and uniqueness of the minimizer u α,δ of F α ( u ) follows from Theorem 1 and u α,δ = A * ( Q+α I Y ) −1 f δ . We have

‖ u α,δ − x 0 ‖≤‖ u α,δ − u α ‖+‖ u α − x 0 ‖.

By Theorem 2, ‖ u α − x 0 ‖:=η( α )→0 , as α→0 , with u α = A * ( A A * +α I Y ) −1 f= A * ( Q+α I Y ) −1 f .

Let us estimate

‖ u α,δ − u α ‖=‖ A * ( Q+α I Y ) −1 ( f δ −f ) ‖≤δ‖ A * ( Q+α I Y ) −1 ‖.

By the polar decomposition theorem [15] [16], one has A * =U Q 1/2 , where U is a partial isometry, so ‖ U ‖≤1 . One has,

‖ A * ( Q+α I Y ) −1 ‖=‖ U Q 1/2 ( Q+α I Y ) −1 ‖ ≤‖ Q 1/2 ( Q+α I Y ) −1 ‖ = max λ≥0 λ 1/2 λ+α = 1 2 α ,

where the spectral representation for Q was used.

Thus

‖ u α,δ − x 0 ‖≤‖ u α,δ − u α ‖+‖ u α − x 0 ‖≤ δ 2 α +η( α ). (11)

For a fixed small δ>0 , choose α=α( δ ) which minimizes the right side of (12). Then lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 and lim δ→0 ( δ 2 α( δ ) +η( α( δ ) ) )=0 .

Theorem 3 is proved.

Remark 1. From (11), we can also choose α( δ )=c δ k , with any 0<k<2 and c=const>0 . The constant c can be arbitrary.

We can also choose α( δ ) by a discrepancy principle. For example, consider the equation for finding α( δ ) :

‖ A u α,δ − f δ ‖=cδ,c=const>1. (12)

We assume that ‖ f δ ‖>cδ .

That is the content of the following theorem.

Theorem 4. The equation

‖ A u α,δ − f δ ‖=cδ,c=const>1,‖ f δ ‖>cδ, (13)

has a unique solution α=α( δ )>0 , lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 , and if u δ := u α( δ ),δ , then lim δ→0 ‖ u δ − x 0 ‖=0 .

Proof. Let us prove that Equation (13) has a unique root α( δ )>0 , lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 . Indeed, using the spectral theorem [15] [16], one gets

‖ A u α,δ − f δ ‖ 2 = ‖ [ A A * ( Q+αI ) ] −1 f δ ‖ 2 = ∫ 0 ∞ | s s+α −1 | 2 d( E s , f δ , f δ ) = α 2 ∫ 0 ∞ d( E s , f δ , f δ ) ( s+α ) 2 :=g( α,δ ),

where E s is the resolution of the identity of Q .

One has g( ∞,δ )= ‖ f δ ‖ 2 > c 2 δ 2 , and g( 0 + ,δ )= ‖ P N * f δ ‖ 2 , where P N * is the orthogonal projector onto the subspace N * =N( Q )=N( A * )=R ( A ) ⊥ .

Since f∈R( A ) and ‖ f δ −f ‖≤δ , it follows that ‖ P N * f δ ‖≤δ , so g( 0 + ,δ )≤ δ 2 . The function g( α,δ ) for a fixed δ>0 is a continuous strictly increasing function of α on [ 0,∞ ) . Therefore, there exists a unique α=α( δ )>0 which solves Eq. (13) if ‖ f δ ‖>cδ and c>1 . Clearly lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 , because lim δ→0 cα( δ )=0 and the relation lim δ→0 α 2 ( δ ) ∫ 0 ∞ d( E s , f δ , f δ ) ( s+α( δ ) ) 2 =0 implies lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 . The function α=α( δ ) is a monotonically growing function of δ with α( 0 + )=0 .

Let us prove that lim δ→0 ‖ u δ − x 0 ‖=0 , where u δ := u α( δ ),δ , and α( δ ) solves Equation (13). By the definition of u δ , we get

‖ A u δ − f δ ‖ 2 +α( δ ) ‖ u δ ‖ 2 ≤ ‖ A x 0 − f δ ‖ 2 +α( δ ) ‖ x 0 ‖ 2 = δ 2 +α( δ ) ‖ x 0 ‖ 2 .

Since ‖ A u δ − f δ ‖ 2 = c 2 δ 2 > δ 2 , it follows that ‖ u δ ‖≤‖ x 0 ‖ . Thus the sequence u δ weakly converges to z , denoted by u δ ⇀z , and similar argument as in proof of Theorem 2, we obtain z= x 0 and lim δ→0 ‖ u δ − x 0 ‖=0 .

Theorem 4 is proved.

Remark 2. Theorems 1-4 are well known in the case of a bounded linear operator A .

If A is bounded, then a necessary condition for the minimum of the functional F α ( u )= ‖ Au−f ‖ 2 +α ‖ u ‖ 2 is the equation

A * Au+αu= A * f. (14)

Hence in this case conditions are required f∈D( A * ) .

If A is unbounded, by the above method, then f does not necessarily belong to D( A * ) . Therefore, some changes in the usual theory are necessary. The changes are given in this paper. We prove, among other things, that for any f∈Y , in particular for f∉D( A * ) , the element u α = A * ( A A * +α I Y ) −! f is well defined for any α=const>0 , provided that A is a closed, linear, densely defined operator in Hilbert space (Theorem 1).

According to [8] [12], we can replace x 0 is unique minimal-norm solution of (1) by y is solution of (1) satisfying condition y⊥N( A ) , then Theorems 1-4 are still true.

3. Applications

We will give a concrete example applying the regularization method presented in Section 2.

Let X= L 2 [ 0,1 ] to be a Hilbert space of measurable functions, Lebesgue squares integrable, with scalar product

〈 x,y 〉= ∫ 0 1 x( t ) y( t ) ¯  dt

We define the operator A:D( A )⊂X→X be the weak derivative operator in X= L 2 [ 0,1 ] , denoted by

Ax= dx dt ,x∈D( A ),

with domain D( A )={ x∈X:x( t ) is absolutely continuous on [ 0,1 ] and  dx dt ∈X } .

Then, A is a linear, closed operator with dense domain.

Indeed D( A ) is dense in X since it contains the complete orthonormal set { sinnπt } n=1 ∞ .

Clearly, A is a linear operator.

We now prove that A is a closed operator in Hilbert X . Indeed, for suppose { x n }⊂D( A ) and x n →x and x ′ n →g , in each case the convergence being in the L 2 [ 0,1 ] norm. Since

x n ( t )= x n ( 0 )+ ∫ 0 t x ′ n ( ξ )dξ ,

we see that the sequence of constant functions { x n ( 0 ) } converges in L 2 [ 0,1 ] and hence the numerical sequence { x n ( 0 ) } converges to some real number C .

Now define h∈D( A ) by h( t )=C+ ∫ 0 t g( ξ )dξ . Then, for any t∈[ 0,1 ] , we have the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality

| x n ( t )−h( t ) |=| x n ( 0 )−C+ ∫ 0 t ( x ′ n ( ξ )−g( ξ ) )dξ | ≤| x n ( 0 )−C |+ ∫ 0 t | x ′ n ( ξ )−g( ξ ) |dξ ≤| x n ( 0 )−C |+‖ x ′ n −g ‖

and hence x n →h uniformly. Therefore, x=h∈D( A ) and Ax= x ′ = h ′ =g , verifying that the operator A is closed, linear, densely defined in L 2 [ 0,1 ] .

Let

D * ={ g∈D( A ):g( 0 )=g( 1 )=0 }.

Then for x∈D( A ) and g∈ D * , we have

〈 Ax,g 〉= ∫ 0 1 x ′ ( t )g( t )dt = x( t )g( t )| 0 1 − ∫ 0 1 x( t ) g ′ ( t )dt =〈 x,− g ′ 〉

Therefore D * ⊂D( A * ) and A * g=− g ′ , for g∈ D * .

On the other hand, if g∈D( A * ) , let g * = A * g . Then

〈 Ax,g 〉=〈 x, g * 〉

for all x∈D( A ) . In particular, for x≡1 , we find that ∫ 0 1 g * ( t )dt =0 .

Now let

h( t )=− ∫ 0 t g * ( s )ds .

Then h∈ D * and A * h= g * = A * g and hence h−g∈N( A * ) . Therefore, 〈 Ax,h−g 〉=0 , for all x∈D( A ) . But R( A ) contains all continuous function and hence g=h∈ D * .

We conclude that

D( A * )= D *   and   A * g=− g ′ .

If the equation

Ax=f (15)

is solvable, then (15) has the unique minimal-normal solution x 0 . (Lemma 2)

According to Theorem 1, for any f∈X= L 2 [ 0,1 ] , the problem

F α ( u )= ‖ Au−f ‖ 2 +α ‖ u ‖ 2 →min,α=const>0,

has a unique solution u α = A * ( A A * +α I X ) −1 f , where I X is the identity operator on X= L 2 [ 0,1 ] . f∈X= L 2 [ 0,1 ] does not necessarily belong to D( A * ) .

It follows from Theorem 2, then

lim α→0 ‖ u α − x 0 ‖=0, u α = A * ( A A * +αI ) −1 f.

It follows from Theorem 3, that if ‖ f δ −f ‖≤δ and

F α,δ ( u )= ‖ Au− f δ ‖ 2 +α ‖ u ‖ 2 =min, (16)

then there exists a unique global minimizer u α,δ to (16) and lim δ→0 ‖ u δ − x 0 ‖=0 , where u δ := u α( δ ),δ and α( δ ) is properly chosen, in particular lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 .

It follows from Theorem 4, that the equation

‖ A u α,δ − f δ ‖=cδ,c=const>1,‖ f δ ‖>cδ,

has a unique solution α=α( δ )>0 , lim δ→0 α( δ )=0 , and if u δ := u α( δ ),δ , then lim δ→0 ‖ u δ − x 0 ‖=0 .

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

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