A time reversal algorithm in acoustic media with Dirac measure approximations

This article is devoted to the study of a photoacoustic tomography model, where one is led to consider the solution of the acoustic wave equation with a source term writing as a separated variables function in time and space, whose temporal component is in some sense close to the derivative of the Dirac distribution at t  =  0. This models a continuous wave laser illumination performed during a short interval of time. We introduce an algorithm for reconstructing the space component of the source term from the measure of the solution recorded by sensors during a time T all along the boundary of a connected bounded domain. It is based at the same time on the introduction of an auxiliary equivalent Cauchy problem allowing to derive explicit reconstruction formula and then to use of a deconvolution procedure. Numerical simulations illustrate our approach. Finally, this algorithm is also extended to elasticity wave systems. (paper)