Nested domain decomposition with polarized traces for the 2D Helmholtz equation
This work improves parallel scalability for solving the Helmholtz equation, which is important for applications like seismic imaging and wave propagation.
The authors present a solver for the 2D high-frequency Helmholtz equation with online parallel complexity scaling empirically as O(N/P) for up to P = O(N^{1/5}) processors, improving on previous O(N^{1/8}) scaling. The method uses nested domain decomposition and polarized traces to achieve sublinear scaling.
We present a solver for the 2D high-frequency Helmholtz equation in heterogeneous, constant density, acoustic media, with online parallel complexity that scales empirically as $\mathcal{O}(\frac{N}{P})$, where $N$ is the number of volume unknowns, and $P$ is the number of processors, as long as $P = \mathcal{O}(N^{1/5})$. This sublinear scaling is achieved by domain decomposition, not distributed linear algebra, and improves on the $P =\mathcal{O}(N^{1/8})$ scaling reported earlier in [L. Zepeda-Núñez and L. Demanet, J. Comput. Phys., 308 (2016), pp. 347-388 ]. The solver relies on a two-level nested domain decomposition: a layered partition on the outer level, and a further decomposition of each layer in cells at the inner level. The Helmholtz equation is reduced to a surface integral equation (SIE) posed at the interfaces between layers, efficiently solved via a nested version of the polarized traces preconditioner [L. Zepeda-Núñez and L. Demanet, J. Comput. Phys., 308 (2016), pp. 347-388.]. The favorable complexity is achieved via an efficient application of the integral operators involved in the SIE.