Gen Nakamura University of Rochester

MRE (magnetic resonance elastography) is a new technology which enables to measure the stationary elastic wave field inside a living body. Since the elastic wave field changes according to the stiffness of the body, MRE enables to identify the stiffness of the body if there is a way to identify the stiffness from the stationary elastic wave field. So, MRE may provide a virtual palpation inside human body. The major target of applying MRE is to detect the stiffness of the early stage breast cancer. In my talk, I will model the living body as a visco-elastic media. Then, I will explain what is the inverse problem for this case and propose some method for the identificating not only the stiffness, but also the density and viscosity.