Computational Inversion with Wasserstein Distances and Neural Network Induced Loss Functions

This thesis presents a systematic computational investigation of loss functions in solving inverse problems of partial differential equations. The primary efforts are spent on understanding optimization-based computational inversion with loss functions defined with the Wasserstein metrics and with deep learning models. The scientific contributions of the thesis can be summarized in two directions. In the first part of this thesis, we investigate the general impacts of different Wasserstein metrics and the properties of the approximate solutions to inverse problems obtained by minimizing loss functions based on such metrics. We contrast the results to those of classical computational inversion with loss functions based on the 𝐿² and 𝐻⁻ metric. We identify critical parameters, both in the metrics and the inverse problems to be solved, that control the performance of the reconstruction algorithms. We highlight the frequency disparity in the reconstructions with the Wasserstein metrics as well as its consequences, for instance, the pre-conditioning effect, the robustness against high-frequency noise, and the loss of resolution when data used contain random noise. We examine the impac