Numerical microlocal analysis of harmonic wavefields (Q1883506)

The authors present an algorithm which give a fixed frequency domain solution in a local neighborhood of an ``observation'' point computes its asymptotic representation around this point. The algorithm is cheap; \(O(M\log M)\) operations are needed, where \(M\) is the number of data samples of the Helmholtz solution on a small circle around the observation point. This number depends on the radius of the circle but it is independent of the frequency. A larger number is necessary to obtain convergence when the separation between rays is small. The accuracy of the method increases with the frequency. It is easy to implement and can be applied both for heterogeneous and homogeneous media. A remarkable feature is its ability to capture diffracted rays.