Spectral regularization method for solving a time-fractional inverse diffusion problem

In this paper, we consider an inverse problem for a time-fractional diffusion equation with one-dimensional semi-infinite domain. The temperature and heat flux are sought from a measured temperature history at a fixed location inside the body. We show that such problem is severely ill-posed and further apply a spectral regularization method to solve it based on the solution given by the Fourier method. Convergence estimates are presented under a priori bound assumptions for the exact solution. Finally, numerical examples are given to show that the proposed numerical method is effective. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.