In recent years, several new imaging modalities have been developed in order to be able to detect physical parameters simultaneously at a high spatial resolution and with a high sensitivity to contrast. These new approaches typically rely on the interaction of two physical imaging methods, and the corresponding mathematical models are the so-called hybrid, or coupled-physics, inverse problems. The combination of two physical modalities poses new mathematical challenges: the analysis of this new class of inverse problems requires the use of various mathematical tools, often of independent interest.

This book intends to provide a first comprehensive course on some of these tools (mainly related to elliptic partial differential equations) and on their applications to hybrid inverse problems. For certain topics, such as the observability of the wave equation, the generalization of the Rad-Kneser-Choquet Theorem to the conductivity equation, complex geometrical optics solutions and the Runge approximation property, the authors review well-known results.

The material is presented with a clear focus on the intended applications to inverse problems. On other topics, including the regularity theory and the study of small-volume perturbations for Maxwell's equations, scattering estimates for the Helmholtz equation and the study of non-zero constraints for solutions of certain PDE, the authors discuss several new results. The authors then show how all these tools can be applied to the analysis of the parameter reconstruction for some hybrid inverse problems: acousto-electric tomography, current density impedance imaging, dynamic elastography, thermoacoustic and photoacoustic tomography.