Propagation, reflection and refraction of singularities for a hyperbolic transmission problem in two adjacent angular regions (Q1105133)

The main purpose of this paper is to study propagation and reflection of singularities of the solution of a transmission problem for the wave equation with different sound speeds in two adjacent angular regions which have amplitude \(\pi\) /2. The initial and boundary data are opportune distributions with compact support. The classic method of images and the theory of pseudodifferential operators are used to find an explicit potential representation of a solution of the considered transmission problem. It is shown that the singularities of such solution travel along bicharacteristic lines coming out from points of the wave front set of boundary and initial data. If the singularities have origin from boundary data there are reflection and refraction phenomena on the faces of the angular regions, according to the geometric optics. If the singularities arise from the initial data reflection phenomena on the edge also occur.