Existence of solutions to k-Wave models of nonlinear ultrasound propagation in biological tissue

We investigate models for nonlinear ultrasound propagation in soft biological tissue based on the one that serves as the core for the software package k-Wave. The systems are solved for the acoustic particle velocity, mass density, and acoustic pressure and involve a fractional absorption operator. We first consider a system that incorporates additional viscosity in the equation for momentum conservation. By constructing a Galerkin approximation procedure, we prove the local existence of its solutions. In view of inverse problems arising from imaging tasks, the theory allows for the variable background mass density, speed of sound, and the nonlinearity parameter in the systems. Second, under stronger conditions on the data, we take the vanishing viscosity limit of the problem, thereby rigorously establishing the existence of solutions for the limiting system as well.