The numerical solution of Symm's equation on smooth open arcs by spline Galerkin methods (Q1972466)

The author investigates the numerical solution of Symm's integral equation on a smooth Jordan open arc \(\Gamma\): \[ -\frac{1}{\pi}\int_\Gamma \log|z-y|u(y) d\sigma_y =f(z),\quad z\in \Gamma. \] Applying the well-known cosine change of the variable, the arc is reparametrized and the problem is transformed into a new integral equation. The existence of an asymptotic expansion for the error of the Galerkin method with splines on a uniform mesh as test-trial functions is investigated. A full discretization of the method based on the Galerkin collocation method using high-order integration formulae to keep the optimal error estimates of the Galerkin method in weak norms is analyzed. Asymptotic expansions of the error for this method are also provided. Finally, these expansions are extended to the computation of the potential. The expansions of the error in powers of the discretization parameter are useful to obtain a posteriori estimates of the error and to apply Richardson extrapolation for acceleration of convergence.