Carlos Pérez-Arancibia

Carlos Pérez-Arancibia, Stephen Shipman, Catalin Turc et al.

We develop a non-overlapping domain decomposition method (DDM) for scalar wave scattering by periodic layered media. Our approach relies on robust boundary-integral equation formulations of Robin-to-Robin (RtR) maps throughout the frequency spectrum, including cutoff (or Wood) frequencies. We overcome the obstacle of non-convergent quasi-periodic Green functions at these frequencies by incorporating newly introduced shifted Green functions. Using the latter in the definition of quasi-periodic boundary-integral operators leads to rigorously stable computations of RtR operators. We develop Nyström discretizations of the RtR maps that rely on trigonometric interpolation, singularity resolution, and fast convergent windowed quasi-periodic Green functions. We solve the tridiagonal DDM system via recursive Schur complements and establish rigorously that this procedure is always completed successfully. We present a variety of numerical results concerning Wood frequencies in two and three dimensions as well as large numbers of layers.

Carlos Jerez-Hanckes, Carlos Pérez-Arancibia, Catalin Turc

We present Nyström discretizations of multitrace formulations and non-overlapping Domain Decomposition Methods (DDM) for the solution of Helmholtz transmission problems for bounded composite scatterers with piecewise constant material properties. We investigate the performance of DDM with both classical Robin and generalized Robin boundary conditions. The generalized Robin boundary conditions incorporate square root Fourier multiplier approximations of Dirichlet to Neumann operators. While the classical version of DDM is not particularly well suited for Krylov subspace iterative solvers, we show that the associated DDM linear system can be efficiently solved by hierarchical elimination via Schur complements of the Robin data. We show through numerical examples that the latter version of DDM gives rise to small numbers of Krylov subspace iterations that depend mildly on the frequency and number of subdomains.

Yassine Boubendir, Carlos Jerez-Hanckes, Carlos Pérez-Arancibia et al.

We present non-overlapping Domain Decomposition Methods (DDM) based on quasi-optimal transmission operators for the solution of Helmholtz transmission problems with piece-wise constant material properties. The quasi-optimal transmission boundary conditions incorporate readily available approximations of Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators. These approximations consist of either complexified hypersingular boundary integral operators for the Helmholtz equation or square root Fourier multipliers with complex wavenumbers. We show that under certain regularity assumptions on the closed interface of material discontinuity, the DDM with quasi-optimal transmission conditions are well-posed. We present a DDM framework based on Robin-to-Robin (RtR) operators that can be computed robustly via boundary integral formulations. More importantly, the use of quasi-optimal transmission operators results in DDM that converge in small numbers of iterations even in the challenging high-contrast, high-frequency regime of Helmholtz transmission problems. Furthermore, the DDM presented in this text require only minor modifications to handle the case of transmission problems in partially coated domains, while still maintaining excellent convergence properties. We also investigate the dependence of the DDM iterative performance on the number of subdomains.

Oscar P. Bruno, Carlos Pérez-Arancibia

This paper presents a new methodology for the solution of problems of two- and three-dimensional acoustic scattering (and, in particular, two-dimensional electromagnetic scattering) by obstacles and defects in presence an arbitrary number of penetrable layers. Relying on use of certain slow-rise windowing functions, the proposed Windowed Green Function approach (WGF) efficiently evaluates oscillatory integrals over unbounded domains, with high accuracy, without recourse to the highly expensive Sommerfeld integrals that have typically been used to account for the effect of underlying planar multi-layer structures. The proposed methodology, whose theoretical basis was presented in the recent contribution (SIAM J. Appl. Math. 76(5), p. 1871, 2016), is fast, accurate, flexible, and easy to implement. Our numerical experiments demonstrate that the numerical errors resulting from the proposed approach decrease faster than any negative power of the window size. In a number of examples considered in this paper the proposed method is up to thousands of times faster, for a given accuracy, than corresponding methods based on use of Sommerfeld integrals.

Carlos Pérez-Arancibia

This paper presents smoothed combined field integral equations for the solution of Dirichlet and Neumann exterior Helmholtz problems. The integral equations introduced in this paper are smooth in the sense that they only involve continuously differentiable integrands in both Dirichlet and Neumann cases. These integral equations coincide with the well-known combined field equations and are therefore uniquely solvable for all frequencies. In particular, a novel regularization of the hypersingular operator is obtained, which, unlike regularizations based on Maue's integration-by-parts formula, does not give rise to involved Cauchy principal value integrals. The smoothed integral operators and layer potentials, on the other hand, can be numerically evaluated at target points that are arbitrarily close to the boundary without severely compromising their accuracy. A variety of numerical examples in two spatial dimensions that consider three different Nyström discretizations for smooth domains and domains with corners---one of which is based on direct application of the trapezoidal rule---demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed integral approach. In certain aspects, this work extends to the uniquely solvable Dirichlet and Neumann combined field integral equations, the ideas presented in the recent contribution R. Soc. Open Sci. 2(140520), 2015.

Carlos Pérez-Arancibia, Catalin Turc

This paper is the direct-formulation companion to [Burbano-Gallegos, P'erez-Arancibia, and Turc, ESAIM: M2AN, 60(1):273--315, 2026], which developed indirect combined-field-only boundary integral equations (BIEs) for time-harmonic electromagnetic scattering by smooth perfectly electrically conducting (PEC) obstacles, relying entirely on Helmholtz boundary integral operators. Here we exploit the same equivalence between the Maxwell PEC scattering problem and a pair of vector Helmholtz boundary value problems -- one for the electric field and one for the magnetic field -- to derive direct BIE formulations whose unknowns are the Dirichlet and Neumann traces of the total fields, decomposed into their normal and tangential surface components. These unknowns carry direct physical meaning: in particular, the magnetic-field formulation yields the surface electric currents as part of its solution. The mixed regularity of the two field-trace components requires introducing a tailored product H"older space, a distinctive feature absent from the indirect approach. We prove that the resulting Direct Electric and Magnetic Combined-Field-Only Integral Equations (D-ECFOIE and D-MCFOIE) are uniquely solvable at all frequencies, and introduce Calder'on-type regularizations (RD-ECFOIE and RD-MCFOIE) that render them of the Fredholm second kind. We further examine the low-frequency breakdown affecting the electric-field formulation and introduce a modified equation that enforces the physical charge-conservation constraints, which restores numerical accuracy and well-conditioned linear systems for frequencies arbitrarily close to zero. Numerical experiments, performed using a high-order Nystr"om solver based on the Density Interpolation Method and implemented in the Julia package Inti.jl, validate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed formulations across a range of geometries and frequencies.

Carlos Pérez-Arancibia, Luiz M. Faria, Catalin Turc

We present an effective harmonic density interpolation method for the numerical evaluation of singular and nearly singular Laplace boundary integral operators and layer potentials in two and three spatial dimensions. The method relies on the use of Green's third identity and local Taylor-like interpolations of density functions in terms of harmonic polynomials. The proposed technique effectively regularizes the singularities present in boundary integral operators and layer potentials, and recasts the latter in terms of integrands that are bounded or even more regular, depending on the order of the density interpolation. The resulting boundary integrals can then be easily, accurately, and inexpensively evaluated by means of standard quadrature rules. A variety of numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique when used in conjunction with the classical trapezoidal rule (to integrate over smooth curves) in two-dimensions, and with a Chebyshev-type quadrature rule (to integrate over surfaces given as unions of non-overlapping quadrilateral patches) in three-dimensions.

David Nicholls, Carlos Pérez-Arancibia, Catalin Turc

We present a sweeping preconditioner for quasi-optimal Domain Decomposition Methods (DDM) applied to Helmholtz transmission problems in periodic layered media. Quasi-optimal DD (QO DD) for Helmholtz equations rely on transmission operators that are approximations of Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DtN) operators. Employing shape perturbation series, we construct approximations of DtN operators corresponding to periodic domains, which we then use as transmission operators in a non-overlapping DD framework. The Robin-to-Robin (RtR) operators that are the building blocks of DDM are expressed via robust boundary integral equation formulations. We use Nyström discretizations of quasi-periodic boundary integral operators to construct high-order approximations of RtR. Based on the premise that the quasi-optimal transmission operators should act like perfect transparent boundary conditions, we construct an approximate LU factorization of the tridiagonal QO DD matrix associated with periodic layered media, which is then used as a double sweep preconditioner. We present a variety of numerical results that showcase the effectiveness of the sweeping preconditioners applied to QO DD for the iterative solution of Helmholtz transmission problems in periodic layered media.

Ignacio Labarca, Luiz M. Faria, Carlos Pérez-Arancibia

This paper presents a class of boundary integral equation methods for the numerical solution of acoustic and electromagnetic time-domain scattering problems in the presence of unbounded penetrable interfaces in two-spatial dimensions. The proposed methodology relies on Convolution Quadrature (CQ) methods in conjunction with the recently introduced Windowed Green Function (WGF) method. As in standard time-domain scattering from bounded obstacles, a CQ method of the user's choice is utilized to transform the problem into a finite number of (complex) frequency-domain problems posed on the domains involving penetrable unbounded interfaces. Each one of the frequency-domain transmission problems is then formulated as a second-kind integral equation that is effectively reduced to a bounded interface by means of the WGF method---which introduces errors that decrease super-algebraically fast as the window size increases. The resulting windowed integral equations can then be solved by means of any (accelerated or unaccelerated) off-the-shelf Helmholtz boundary integral equation solver capable of handling complex wavenumbers with a large imaginary part. A high-order Nyström method based on Alpert quadrature rules is utilized here. A variety of numerical examples including wave propagation in open waveguides as well as scattering from multiply layered media demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed approach.