Extracting the Green's function from measurements of the energy flux

Existing methods for Green's function extraction give the Green's function from the correlation of field fluctuations recorded at those points. In this work it is shown that the Green's function for acoustic waves can be retrieved from measurements of the integrated energy flux through a closed surface taken from three experiments where two time-harmonic sources first operate separately, and then simultaneously. This makes it possible to infer the Green's function in acoustics from measurements of the energy flux through an arbitrary closed surface surrounding both sources. The theory is also applicable to quantum mechanics where the Green's function can be retrieved from measurement of the flux of scattered particles through a closed surface.