On the negative spectrum of the Robin Laplacian in corner domains

For a bounded corner domain $\Omega$, we consider the Robin Laplacian in $\Omega$ with large Robin parameter. Exploiting multiscale analysis and a recursive procedure, we have a precise description of the mechanism giving the ground state of the spectrum. It allows also the study of the bottom of the essential spectrum on the associated tangent structures given by cones. Then we obtain the asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue for this singular limit in any dimension, with remainder estimates. The same method works for the Schr\"odinger operator in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with a strong attractive delta-interaction supported on $\partial\Omega$. Applications to some Erhling's type estimates and the analysis of the critical temperature of some superconductors are also provided

Accurate computation of surface stresses and forces with immersed boundary methods

Many immersed boundary methods solve for surface stresses that impose the velocity boundary conditions on an immersed body. These surface stresses may contain spurious oscillations that make them ill-suited for representing the physical surface stresses on the body. Moreover, these inaccurate stresses often lead to unphysical oscillations in the history of integrated surface forces such as the coefficient of lift. While the errors in the surface stresses and forces do not necessarily affect the convergence of the velocity field, it is desirable, especially in fluid-structure interaction problems, to obtain smooth and convergent stress distributions on the surface. To this end, we show that the equation for the surface stresses is an integral equation of the first kind whose ill-posedness is the source of spurious oscillations in the stresses. We also demonstrate that for sufficiently smooth delta functions, the oscillations may be filtered out to obtain physically accurate surface stresses. The filtering is applied as a post-processing procedure, so that the convergence of the velocity field is unaffected. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method by computing stresses and forces that converge to the physical stresses and forces for several test problems

hp-version time domain boundary elements for the wave equation on quasi-uniform meshes

Solutions to the wave equation in the exterior of a polyhedral domain or a screen in $\mathbb{R}^3$ exhibit singular behavior from the edges and corners. We present quasi-optimal $hp$-explicit estimates for the approximation of the Dirichlet and Neumann traces of these solutions for uniform time steps and (globally) quasi-uniform meshes on the boundary. The results are applied to an $hp$-version of the time domain boundary element method. Numerical examples confirm the theoretical results for the Dirichlet problem both for screens and polyhedral domains.Comment: 41 pages, 11 figure

A moving boundary problem motivated by electric breakdown: I. Spectrum of linear perturbations

An interfacial approximation of the streamer stage in the evolution of sparks and lightning can be written as a Laplacian growth model regularized by a `kinetic undercooling' boundary condition. We study the linear stability of uniformly translating circles that solve the problem in two dimensions. In a space of smooth perturbations of the circular shape, the stability operator is found to have a pure point spectrum. Except for the zero eigenvalue for infinitesimal translations, all eigenvalues are shown to have negative real part. Therefore perturbations decay exponentially in time. We calculate the spectrum through a combination of asymptotic and series evaluation. In the limit of vanishing regularization parameter, all eigenvalues are found to approach zero in a singular fashion, and this asymptotic behavior is worked out in detail. A consideration of the eigenfunctions indicates that a strong intermediate growth may occur for generic initial perturbations. Both the linear and the nonlinear initial value problem are considered in a second paper.Comment: 37 pages, 6 figures, revised for Physica

Direct and Inverse Computational Methods for Electromagnetic Scattering in Biological Diagnostics

Scattering theory has had a major roll in twentieth century mathematical physics. Mathematical modeling and algorithms of direct,- and inverse electromagnetic scattering formulation due to biological tissues are investigated. The algorithms are used for a model based illustration technique within the microwave range. A number of methods is given to solve the inverse electromagnetic scattering problem in which the nonlinear and ill-posed nature of the problem are acknowledged.Comment: 61 pages, 5 figure