On the condition number of boundary integral operators for the exterior Dirichlet problem for the Helmholtz equation (Q790348)

The authors discuss the Dirichlet problem for the Helmholtz and Laplace equations on some unbounded domains \(D\subset {\mathbb{R}}^ n\) when \(n=2,3\). The behaviour of the solution at infinity is given by the Sommerfeld's radiation condition. The solution is sought under the form \[ u(x)=\int_{\partial D}\phi(y)\}\partial \Phi(x,y)/\partial n(y)-i\eta \alpha(y)\Phi(x,y)\}ds(y),\quad x\in D \] which leads to the integral equation \[ (1/2)\phi(x)+\int_{\partial D}\phi(y)\{\partial \Phi(x,y)/\partial n(y)-i\eta \alpha(y)\Phi(x,y)\}ds(y)=f(x),\quad x\in D. \] Here \(\eta>0\), \(\alpha\in C(\partial D)\), \(\alpha>0\) are regarded as parameters. Using the notation \(M=I+L-i\eta S\), the integral equation is written under the form \(M\Phi =2f\). The aim of the paper is to determine the variation of \(\eta\) such that cond M\(=(\lambda_{Max}/\lambda_{Min})^{1/2}\) is minimal, where \(\lambda_{Max}\) and \(\lambda_{Min}\) are the greatest resp. the smallest eigenvalues of \(M^*M\). The numerical results refer to the exterior of the unit sphere when \(n=3\), to the exterior of the unit disk when \(n=2\) and to the exterior of an ellipse when the integral equation is discretized.