Tumor treatment by time-reversal acoustics

There has been a great deal of work in ocean science over the last 10 years in using acoustic channel models in the signal processing. The goal has been to compensate for the “barbershop” effect in which a sonar system confuses the true source with its reflections in the acoustic mirrors formed by the ocean surface and bottom. Separately, in medicine, hyperthermia has emerged as an important area of research. For hyperthermia acoustic beams are trained on tumors with the goal of reversing their growth. Our interest is the question of what (if any) lessons from the sonar experience can be applied to hyperthermia