Mixed boundary integral methods for Helmholtz transmission problems (Q2479385)

The article is concerned with transmission problems for the Helmholtz equation with an interface between a bounded and an unbounded region in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) or \(\mathbb{R}^3\) which is smooth or Lipschitz. Using single and double layer potentials, the problem is rewritten for the three unknowns formed by the trace of the interior solution part and its normal derivative, and an exterior density (the single layer potential of which is the exterior solution part). The corresponding operator is shown to be an isomorphism. The authors' main goal is now to establish stability and convergence properties of Galerkin methods generated by such problems. Besides the approximation property for the discrete spaces, several inf-sup conditions are shown to be necessary and sufficient for convergence. In the 2D case with a smooth interface, these (more abstract) conditions are proven to hold for two specific choices of the discrete subspaces. Two numerical examples, including a scattering problem, illustrate the established convergence results.