Inverse Radiative Transport with Local Data

We consider an inverse problem for a radiative transport equation (RTE) in which boundary sources and measurements are restricted to a single subset \(E\) of the boundary of the domain \(\Omega\). We show that this problem can be solved globally if the restriction of the X-ray transform to lines through \(E\) is invertible on \(\Omega\). In particular, if \(\Omega\) is strictly convex, we show that this local data problem can be solved globally whenever \(E\) is an open subset of the boundary. The proof relies on isolation and analysis of the second term in the collision expansion for solutions to the RTE, essentially considering light which scatters exactly once inside the domain.