Shape derivatives of boundary integral operators in electromagnetic scattering. II: Application to scattering by a homogeneous dielectric obstacle (Q453667)

The authors develop the shape derivative analysis of solutions to the problem of scattering of time-harmonic electromagnetic waves by a penetrable bounded obstacle. Since boundary integral equations are a classical tool to solve electromagnetic scattering problems, we study the shape differentiability properties of the standard electromagnetic boundary integral operators. The latter are typically bounded on the space of tangential vector fields of mixed regularity \({\mathsf T \mathsf H^{-\frac{1}{2}}({\mathrm{div}}_{\Gamma},\Gamma)}\). The authors are able to base their analysis on the study of pseudo-differential integral operators in standard Sobolev spaces by using the Helmholtz decomposition but have then to study the Gâteaux differentiability of surface differential operators. They prove that the electromagnetic boundary integral operators are infinitely differentiable without loss of regularity. In addition, they give a characterization of the first shape derivative of the solution of the dielectric scattering problem as a solution of a new electromagnetic scattering problem. For part I, see [ibid. 72, No. 4, 509--535 (2012; Zbl 1331.47045)].