Inverse problems for random differential equations using the collage method for random contraction mappings

Most natural phenomena or the experiments that explore them are subject to small variations in the environment within which they take place. As a result, data gathered from many runs of the same experiment may well show differences that are most suitably accounted for by a model that incorporates some randomness. Differential equations with random coefficients are one such class of useful models. In this paper we consider such equations as random fixed point equations T(w,x(w)) = x(w), where T : \Omega × X \to X is a random integral operator, \Omega is a probability space and X is a complete metric space. We consider the following inverse problem for such equations: given a set of realizations of the fixed point of T (possibly the interpolations of different observational data sets), determine the operator T or the mean value of its random components, as appropriate. We solve the inverse problem for this class of equations by using the collage theorem.