Leonid Kunyansky

Leonid Kunyansky

Professor, Mathematics
Professor, Applied Mathematics - GIDP
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-4509

Work Summary

I develop mathematics of biomedical imaging. All modalities of tomography imaging rely heavily on mathematical algorithms for forming an image. I develop the theory and the algorithm enabling this technology.

Research Interest

Biomedical imaging, in general, and various modalities of tomography are now an important part of medical practice and biomedical research. I develop mathematics of biomedical imaging. All modalities of tomography imaging rely heavily on mathematical algorithms for forming an image. My work involves developing the theory and the algorithm enabling this technology. By developing these techniques further, I contribute to improving health and life in the 21st century. Keywords: Electromagnetic and acoustic scattering; wave propagation; photonic crystals; spectral properties of high contrast band-gap materials and operators on graphs; computerized tomography.

Publications

Kunyansky, L. A. (2007). A series solution and a fast algorithm for the inversion of the spherical mean Radon transform. Inverse Problems, 23(6), S11-S20.

Abstract:

An explicit series solution is proposed for the inversion of the spherical mean Radon transform. Such an inversion is required in problems of thermo- and photo-acoustic tomography. Closed-form inversion formulae are currently known only for the case when the centres of the integration spheres lie on a sphere surrounding the support of the unknown function, or on certain unbounded surfaces. Our approach results in an explicit series solution for any closed measuring surface surrounding a region for which the eigenfunctions of the Dirichlet Laplacian are explicitly known - such as, for example, cube, finite cylinder, half-sphere etc. In addition, we present a fast reconstruction algorithm applicable in the case when the detectors (the centres of the integration spheres) lie on a surface of a cube. This algorithm reconstructs 3D images thousands times faster than backprojection-type methods. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Kunyansky, L. A. (2008). Thermoacoustic tomography with detectors on an open curve: An efficient reconstruction algorithm. Inverse Problems, 24(5).

Abstract:

Practical applications of thermoacoustic tomography require numerical inversion of the spherical mean Radon transform with the centers of integration spheres occupying an open surface. A solution of this problem is needed (both in 2D and in 3D) because frequently the region of interest cannot be completely surrounded by the detectors, as happens, for example, in breast imaging. We present an efficient numerical algorithm for solving this problem in 2D (similar methods are applicable in the 3D case). Our method is based on the numerical approximation of plane waves by certain single-layer potentials related to the acquisition geometry. After the densities of these potentials have been precomputed, each subsequent image reconstruction has the complexity of the regular filtration backprojection algorithm for the classical Radon transform. The performance of the method is demonstrated in several numerical examples: one can see that the algorithm produces very accurate reconstructions if the data are accurate and sufficiently well sampled; on the other hand, it is sufficiently stable with respect to noise in the data. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Bruno, O. P., & Kunyansky, L. A. (2001). A Fast, High-Order Algorithm for the Solution of Surface Scattering Problems: Basic Implementation, Tests, and Applications. Journal of Computational Physics, 169(1), 80-110.

Abstract:

We present a new algorithm for the numerical solution of problems of acoustic scattering by surfaces in three-dimensional space. This algorithm evaluates scattered fields through fast, high-order solution of the corresponding boundary integral equation. The high-order accuracy of our solver is achieved through use of partitions of unity together with analytical resolution of kernel singularities. The acceleration, in turn, results from use of a novel approach which, based on high-order "two-face" equivalent source approximations, reduces the evaluation of far interactions to evaluation of 3-D fast Fourier transforms (FFTs). This approach is faster and substantially more accurate, and it runs on dramatically smaller memories than other FFT and k-space methods. The present algorithm computes one matrix-vector multiplication in O(N6/5logN) to O(N4/3logN) operations, where N is the number of surface discretization points. The latter estimate applies to smooth surfaces, for which our high-order algorithm provides accurate solutions with small values of N; the former, more favorable count is valid for highly complex surfaces requiring significant amounts of subwavelength sampling. Further, our approach exhibits super-algebraic convergence; it can be applied to smooth and nonsmooth scatterers, and it does not suffer from accuracy breakdowns of any kind. In this paper we introduce the main algorithmic components in our approach, and we demonstrate its performance with a variety of numerical results. In particular, we show that the present algorithm can evaluate accurately in a personal computer scattering from bodies of acoustical sizes of several hundreds. © 2001 Academic Press.

Kuchment, P., Kuchment, P., Kunyansky, L., & Kunyansky, L. (2010). Synthetic focusing in ultrasound modulated tomography. Inverse Problems and Imaging, 4(4), 665-673.

Abstract:

Several hybrid tomographic methods utilizing ultrasound modulation have been introduced lately. Success of these methods hinges on the feasibility of focusing ultrasound waves at an arbitrary point of interest. Such focusing, however, is difficult to achieve in practice. We thus propose a way to avoid the use of focused waves through what we call synthetic focusing, i.e. by reconstructing the would-be response to the focused modulation from the measurements corresponding to realistic unfocused waves. Examples of reconstructions from simulated data are provided. This non-technical paper describes only the general concept, while technical details will appear elsewhere. © 2010 American Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

Kunyansky, L. (2015). Inversion of the spherical means transform in corner-like domains by reduction to the classical Radon transform. Inverse Problems, 31(9).