Inversion of generalized Radon transforms acting on 3D vector and symmetric tensor fields

Currently, theory of the ray transforms of vector and tensor fields is well developed, but the generalized Radon transforms of such fields have not been fully studied. We consider the normal, longitudinal and mixed Radon transforms (with integration over planes) acting on three-dimensional vector and symmetric tensor fields. We prove that these operators are continuous. In case when values of all generalized Radon transforms are known, inversion formulas are derived for componentwise reconstruction of vector and symmetric m-tensor fields, m⩾2 . Novel detailed decompositions of 3D vector and symmetric 2-tensor fields as a sum of pairwise orthogonal terms are obtained. For construction of each term in the sum only one function is required. With usage of these decompositions we have described the kernels and images of the generalized Radon transforms. In addition, we have obtained inversion formulas for each of the generalized Radon transforms acting on 3D vector and symmetric 2-tensor fields and have formulated theorems similar to the projection theorem for the Radon transform. For the cases m⩾3 similar statements are formulated as hypotheses. In addition, we consider the weighted longitudinal Radon transforms of 3D vector fields. Formulas are obtained for reconstructing the potential part of a 3D vector field from the known values of the longitudinal Radon transforms and one weighted Radon transform. Finally, we discuss the problem of vector fields reconstruction in Rn , n⩾4 .