Reconstructing parameters of the FitzHugh-Nagumo system from boundary potential measurements.

We consider distributed parameter identification problems for the FitzHugh-Nagumo model of electrocardiology. The model describes the evolution of electrical potentials in heart tissues. The mathematical problem is to reconstruct physical parameters of the system through partial knowledge of its solutions on the boundary of the domain. We present a parallel algorithm of Newton-Krylov type that combines Newton's method for numerical optimization with Krylov subspace solvers for the resulting Karush-Kuhn-Tucker system. We show by numerical simulations that parameter reconstruction can be performed from measurements taken on the boundary of the domain only. We discuss the effects of various model parameters on the quality of reconstructions.