Stability estimate for an inverse boundary coefficient problem in thermal imaging

We establish a stability estimate for an inverse boundary coefficient problem in thermal imaging. The inverse problem under consideration consists in the determination of a boundary coefficient appearing in a boundary value problem for the heat equation with Robin boundary condition (we note here that the initial condition is assumed to be a priori unknown). Our stability estimate is of logarithmic type and it is essentially based on a logarithmic estimate for a Cauchy problem for the Laplace equation. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved