The aim of this paper is to develop a mathematical framework for opto-elastography. In opto-elastography, a mechanical perturbation of the medium produces a decorrelation of optical speckle patterns due to the displacements of optical scatterers. To model this, we consider two optically random media, with the second medium obtained by shifting the first medium in some local region. We derive the radiative transfer equation for the cross-correlation of the wave fields in the media. Then we derive its diffusion approximation. In both the radiative transfer and the diffusion regimes, we relate the correlation of speckle patterns to the solutions of the radiative transfer and the diffusion equations. We present numerical simulations based on our model which are in agreement with recent experimental measurements.

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As a tool for solving the Neumann problem for divergence-form equations, Kenig and Pipher introduced the space ${\mathcal{X}}$ of functions on the half-space, such that the non-tangential maximal function of their$L$_{2}Whitney averages belongs to$L$_{2}on the boundary. In this paper, answering questions which arose from recent studies of boundary value problems by Auscher and the second author, we find the pre-dual of ${\mathcal{X}}$ , and characterize the pointwise multipliers from ${\mathcal{X}}$ to$L$_{2}on the half-space as the well-known Carleson-type space of functions introduced by Dahlberg. We also extend these results to$L$_{$p$}generalizations of the space ${\mathcal{X}}$ . Our results elaborate on the well-known duality between Carleson measures and non-tangential maximal functions.

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We study the vanishing viscosity limit of the compressible NavierStokes equations to the Riemann solution of the Euler equations that consists of the superposition of a shock wave and a rarefaction wave. In particular, it is shown that there exists a family of smooth solutions to the compressible NavierStokes equations that converges to the Riemann solution away from the initial and shock layers at a rate in terms of the viscosity and the heat conductivity coefficients. This gives the first mathematical justification of this limit for the NavierStokes equations to the Riemann solution that contains these two typical nonlinear hyperbolic waves.