Recent years have been characterized by the increasing
amountofpublications in the field ofso-called ill-posed problems. This
is easilyunderstandable because we observe the rapid progress of a
relatively young branch ofmathematics, ofwhich the first results date
back to about 30 years ago. By now, impressive results have been
achieved both in the theory ofsolving ill-posed problems and in the
applicationsofalgorithms using modem computers. To mention just one
field, one can name the computer tomography which could not possibly
have been developed without modem tools for solving ill-posed problems.
When writing this book, the authors tried to define the place and role
of ill- posed problems in modem mathematics. In a few words, we define
the theory of ill-posed problems as the theory of approximating
functions with approximately given arguments in functional spaces. The
difference between well-posed and ill- posed problems is concerned with
the fact that the latter are associated with discontinuous functions.
This approach is followed by the authors throughout the whole book. We
hope that the theoretical results will be of interest to researchers
working in approximation theory and functional analysis. As for
particular algorithms for solving ill-posed problems, the authors paid
general attention to the principles ofconstructing such algorithms as
the methods for approximating discontinuous functions with approximately
specified arguments. In this way it proved possible to define the limits
of applicability of regularization techniques.