Volume integral equations for electromagnetic scattering in two dimensions

We study the strongly singular volume integral equation that describes the scattering of time-harmonic electromagnetic waves by a penetrable obstacle. We consider the case of a cylindrical obstacle and fields invariant along the axis of the cylinder, which allows the reduction to two-dimensional problems. With this simplification, we can refine the analysis of the essential spectrum of the volume integral operator started in a previous paper (M. Costabel, E. Darrigrand, H. Sakly: The essential spectrum of the volume integral operator in electromagnetic scattering by a homogeneous body, Comptes Rendus Mathematique, 350 (2012), pp. 193-197) and obtain results for non-smooth domains that were previously available only for smooth domains. It turns out that in the TE case, the magnetic contrast has no influence on the Fredholm properties of the problem. As a byproduct of the choice that exists between a vectorial and a scalar volume integral equation, we discover new results about the symmetry of the spectrum of the double layer boundary integral operator on Lipschitz domains.Comment: 21 page

Coupling of Fast Multipole Method and Microlocal Discretization for the 3-D Helmholtz Equation

29 pagesRapport interne n 0119 du LRC-CEA MAB.We are concerned with an integral method applied to the solution of the Helmholtz equation where the linear system is solved using an iterative method. We need to perform matrix-vector products whose time and memory requirements are increasing as a function of the wave number $\kappa$. A lot of methods have been developed in order to speed up the matrix-vector product calculation or to reduce the size of the system. Microlocal discretization methods enable one to consider new systems with reduced size. Another method, the fast multipole method, is one of the most efficient and robust methods used to speed up the calculation of matrix-vector products. In this paper, a coupling of these two recent methods is presented. It enables one to reduce the CPU time very efficiently for large wave numbers. Satisfactory numerical tests are also presented to confirm the theoretical study within a new integral formulation. Results are obtained for a sphere with a size of $26 \lambda$ by a resolution based on a mesh with an average edge length about $2 \lambda$ where $\lambda$ is the wavelength

Goal-Oriented Adaptivity using Unconventional Error Representations

In Goal-Oriented Adaptivity (GOA), the error in a Quantity of Interest (QoI) is represented using global error functions of the direct and adjoint problems. This error representation is subsequently bounded above by element-wise error indicators that are used to drive optimal refinements. In this work, we propose to replace, in the error representation, the adjoint problem by an alternative operator. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that, when judiciously selecting such alternative operator, the corresponding upper bound of the error representation becomes sharper, leading to a more efficient GOA. These representations can be employed to design novel h, p, and hp energy-norm and goal-oriented adaptive algorithms. While the method can be applied to a variety of problems, in this Dissertation we first focus on one-dimensional (1D) problems, including Helmholtz and steady-state convection-dominated diffusion problems. Numerical results in 1D show that for the Helmholtz problem, it is advantageous to select the Laplace operator for the alternative error representation. Specifically, the upper bounds of the new error representation are sharper than the classical ones used in both energy-norm and goal-oriented adaptive methods, especially when the dispersion (pollution) error is significant. The 1D steady-state convection-dominated diffusion problem with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions exhibits a boundary layer that produces a loss of numerical stability. The new error representation based on the Laplace operator delivers sharper error upper bounds. When applied to a p-GOA, the alternative error representation captures earlier the boundary layer, despite the existing spurious numerical oscillations. We then focus on the two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) Helmholtz equation. We show via extensive numerical experimentation that the upper bounds provided by the alternative error representations are sharper than the classical ones. When using the alternative error indicators, a naive p-adaptive process converges, whereas under the same conditions, the classical method fails and requires the use of the so-called Projection Based Interpolation (PBI) operator or some other technique to regain convergence. We also provide guidelines for finding operators delivering sharp error representation upper bounds.Basque Government Consolidated Research Group Grant IT649-1

Combining the Ultra-Weak Variational Formulation and the Multilevel Fast Multipole Method

International audienceBecause of its practical significance, many different methods have been developed for the solution of the time-harmonic Maxwell equations in an exterior domain at higher frequency. Often methods with complimentary strengths can be combined to obtain an even better method. In this paper we provide a numerical study of a method for coupling of the Ultra-Weak Variational Formulation (UWVF) of Maxwell's equations, a volume based method using plane wave basis functions, and an overlapping integral representation of the unknown field to obtain an exact artificial boundary condition on an auxiliary surface that can be very close to the scatterer. Combining the new algorithm with a multilevel fast multipole method we obtain an efficient volume based solver with an exact auxiliary boundary condition, but without the need for singular integrals

The essential spectrum of the volume integral operator in electromagnetic scattering by a homogeneous body

International audienceWe study the strongly singular volume integral operator that describes the scattering of time-harmonic electromagnetic waves. For the case of piecewise constant material coefficients and smooth interfaces, we determine the essential spectrum. We show that it is a finite set and that the operator is Fredholm of index zero in H(curl) if and only if the relative permeability and permittivity are both different from 0 and -1