Inference of the Lateral Heterogeneity of the Earth from the Eigenfrequency Spectrum: a Linear Inverse Problem

Summary
We consider the problem of inferring information about the lateral heterogeneity of the Earth's physical properties given certain measurements of the eigenfrequency splitting of the elastic-gravitational normal mode multiplets. We show that this problem can be formulated as a series of exactly linear inverse problems; the data which are relevant to at least the first two of these linear inversions can be measured without having to resolve fully the normal mode multiplets.