Computation of eigenfrequencies of an acoustic medium in a prolate spheroid by a modified Abramov method (Q2214162)

The three-dimensional Helmholtz equation when solved by separation of variables in a prolate spheroidal system of coordinates leads to a two-parameter singular self-adjoint Sturm-Liouville problem. The author solves this two-parameter singular eigenproblem by a modified Abramov's method. In order to accurately find out the high-frequency (the so-called whispering gallery modes- (WGMs)), acoustic oscillations in both nearly spherical and strongly prolate spheroids the author introduces a special mollifier (scaling function) that ensures less sharp variations in the solutions. Some illustrative examples are carried out in order to illustrate some WGMs and the performances of the method.