Analysis of the SQP Method for Hyperbolic PDE-Constrained Optimization in Acoustic Full Waveform Inversion

Abstract. In this paper, the SQP method applied to a hyperbolic PDE-constrained optimization problem is considered. The model arises from the acoustic full waveform inversion in the time domain. The analysis is mainly challenging due to the involved hyperbolicity and second-order bilinear structure. This notorious character leads to an undesired effect of loss of regularity in the SQP method, calling for a substantial extension of developed parabolic techniques. We propose and analyze a novel strategy for the well-posedness and convergence analysis based on the use of a smooth-in-time initial condition, a tailored self-mapping operator, and a two-step estimation process along with Stampacchia’s method for second-order wave equations. Our final theoretical result is the R-superlinear convergence of the SQP method.