Wood's anomalies and surface waves in the problem of scattering by a periodic boundary. I (Q4256983)

This paper presents a systematic study of the Wood's anomalies in the diffraction of an acoustic plane wave by a periodic boundary. Wood observed that for the incidence angle past a threshold angle, the diffraction pattern changes drastically or even a complete collapse is encountered. Here the problem is formulated mathematically as a boundary value problem for the Helmholtz equation in a semi-infinite strip. The method of analyzing the boundary value problem is based on the theory of general elliptic boundary value problems in infinite cylindrical domains. Part I adresses the drastic changes in diffraction characteristics beyond the threshold frequency \(k_0\). The accompanying part II [see the following entry] shows that for some frequencies \(k\) close to the threshold frequency, there arises a surface wave that decays exponentially at \(\infty\), so that an avalanche-like accumulation of energy occurs in the boundary region provoking the collapse. It is shown that diffraction irregularities occur beyond a threshold frequency \(k_0\), where additional channels are ``open'' which initiates a new oscillating wave going to \(\infty\). The authors find asymptotic formulae for the scattering matrix near the threshold \(k^2=k_0^2\). This matrix has distinct sizes in the ``subthreshold'' \((k^2=k_0^2 -\varepsilon^4)\) and the ``superthreshold'' \((k^2=k^2_0 +\varepsilon^4)\) regions. Thus there must be a transformation of the scattering matrix. In addition, the derivatives of its entries with respect to \(k\) grow infinitely as \(k\to k_0\pm 0\). This phenomenon explains the drastic changes in diffraction characteristics, and thus addresses one aspect of the Wood's anomaly. However, the above theory does not distinguish thresholds at which the periodic structure can collapse (not all thresholds lead to collapse), which is investigated in part II.