Near peak scattering and the corrected Kirchhoff approximation for a convex obstacle

The uniform asympotic behavior of the scattering amplitude near the forward peak, in the case of classical scattering of waves by a convex obstacle, is derived. A microlocal model is obtained for the scattering operator. This is achieved by use of a parametrix for diffractive boundary problems and by a new study of a class of Fourier integral operators, those with folding canonical relations. A crucial ingredient consists of putting a Fourier integral operator with folding canonical relation into a normal form. The analysis also gives the asymptotic behavior of the normal derivative of the scattered wave on a neighbourhood of the shadow boundary, thus providing a corrected version of the Kirchhoff approximation.     

A Galerkin approximation for integro-differential equations in electromagnetic scattering from a chiral medium

We consider the scattering of time-harmonic electromagnetic waves from a chiral medium. It is known for the Drude–Born–Fedorov model that the forward scattering problem can be described by an integro-differential equation. In this paper we study a Galerkin finite element approximation for this integro-differential equation. Our Galerkin scheme, which relies on a suitable periodization of the integral equation, enables the use of the fast Fourier transform and a simple numerical implementation. We establish a quasi-optimal convergence analysis for the Galerkin method. Explicit formulas for the discrete scheme are also provided.     

Time-dependent potential scattering in chiral media

Electromagnetic waves propagating in a homogeneous three-dimensional unbounded chiral medium are considered. We define a chiral operator and study potential scattering relative to this operator. A spectral analysis of associated operators is obtained, based on the Plancherel theory of the Fourier transform. Using the generalised eigenfunction expansion theory, we give an integral representation of the solution. A discussion of asymptotic equality of solutions is provided and the associated wave operator introduced.     

On The Strength Of Streak Artifacts In Filtered Back-projection Reconstructions For Limited Angle Weighted X-Ray Transform

In this article, we study the limited angle problem for the weighted X-ray transform. We consider two approximate reconstructions by applying filtered back-projection formulas to the limited data. We prove that each resulted operator can be decomposed into the sum of three Fourier integral operators whose symbols are of types \((\varrho ,\,\delta ) \ne (1,\,0).\) The first operator, being a pseudo-differential operator, is responsible for the reconstruction of visible singularities. The other two are responsible for the generation of the artifacts. The theory of Fourier integral operators then implies, in particular, the continuity of the reconstruction operator and geometry of the artifacts. We then extend the technique developed by the author in [Inverse Problems 31 (2015) 055003] to obtain more refined microlocal estimates for the strength of the artifacts.     

A Second-Order Method for the Electromagnetic Scattering from a Large Cavity

In this paper,we study the electromagnetic scattering from a two dimen- sional large rectangular open cavity embedded in an infinite ground plane,which is modelled by Helmholtz equations.By introducing nonlocal transparent boundary con- ditions,the problem in the open cavity is reduced to a bounded domain problem.A hypersingular integral operator and a weakly singular integral operator are involved in the TM and TE cases,respectively.A new second-order Toeplitz type approximation and a second-order finite difference scheme are proposed for approximating the hyper- singular integral operator on the aperture and the Helmholtz in the cavity,respectively. The existence and uniqueness of the numerical solution in the TE case are established for arbitrary wavenumbers.A fast algorithm for the second-order approximation is pro- posed for solving the cavity model with layered media.Numerical results show the second-order accuracy and efficiency of the fast algorithm.More important is that the algorithm is easy to implement as a preconditioner for cavity models with more general media.     

Time domain study of the Drude–Born–Fedorov model for a class of heterogeneous chiral materials

We deal with the well‐posedness of the transient Maxwell equations in a particular class of heterogeneous isotropic chiral material modeled by the Drude–Born–Fedorov constitutive relations with different boundary conditions. A new formulation of the underlying evolution problems allows us to establish existence and uniqueness results. The selfadjointness of the curl operator multiplied by a piecewise smooth function in an appropriated Hilbert space is also proved. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the inverse problem at fixed energy in the "Iterative" range

The scattering amplitude by a spherically symmetric potential at fixed energy is given in the Born approximation by a filtered Fourier transform, whose inverse is not unique. It is well known that matrix methods enable one to study exactly the problem at fixed energy in classes of potentials parametrised by sequences of numbers. In the range of potentials (or of phase shifts) where these methods can be managed by iteration, Born case is a limit. This article is a brief survey of the inverse problem (scattering amplitude?→?potential?) recalling how the nonuniqueness predicted in the Born approximation appears in these exact methods, showing henceforth that the inverse problem ill-posedness corresponds to physical features of the potential on which experiments at finite energy are unable to give information.     

Structure of the Semi-Classical Amplitude for General Scattering Relations

ABSTRACT

We consider scattering by general compactly supported semi-classical perturbations of the Euclidean Laplace-Beltrami operator. We show that if the suitably cut-off resolvent quantizes a Lagrangian relation on the product cotangent bundle, the scattering amplitude quantizes the natural scattering relation. In the case when the resolvent is tempered, which is true at non-trapping energies or at trapping energies under some non-resonance assumptions, and when we work microlocally near a non-trapped ray, our result implies that the scattering amplitude defines a semiclassical Fourier integral operator associated to the scattering relation in a neighborhood of that ray. Compared to previous work, we allow this relation to have more general geometric structure.     

On geometric ideas which lie at the foundation of quantum theory

Part I advances the hypothesis that between any two events on the world-line of a particle there can be at most finitely many intermediate events. From this it draws the conclusion that the space-time coordinates of events do not have precise meanings. Part II modifies the Feynman integral in a way which is analogous to the replacement of white noise by Gaussian noise. It thereby obtains a version of the quantum mechanics for a nonrelativistic particle in a potential. In the new discrete quantum theory, space coordinates have probabilistic rather than precise meanings; the energy of a free particle is a bounded operator; and the potential energy is a compact operator. It is argued that the differential scattering cross section for elastic scattering is unchanged when taken in the Born approximation.     

Born series in obstacle scattering

A Born series is derived for obstacle scattering without using integral equations. It is demonstrated that the Born approximation satisfies reciprocity relation manifestly which is not the case if integral equations are used. Moreover, the determination of a Born term of any order using this approach has reveal numerical and computational advantages. In addition, since the method does not use integral equations, the solutions obtained are not affected by the interior spectrum of the adjoint problems.     

Reflection of plane waves by rough surfaces in the sense of Born approximation

The topic of the present paper is the reflection of electromagnetic plane waves by rough surfaces, that is, by smooth and bounded perturbations of planar faces. Moreover, the contrast between the cover material and the substrate beneath the rough surface is supposed to be low. In this case, a modification of Stearns’ formula based on Born approximation and Fourier techniques is derived for a special class of surfaces. This class contains the graphs of functions where the interface function is a radially modulated almost periodic function. For the Born formula to converge, a sufficient and almost necessary condition is given. A further technical condition is defined, which guarantees the existence of the corresponding far field of the Born approximation. This far field contains plane waves, far‐field terms such as those for bounded scatterers, and, additionally, a new type of terms. The derived formulas can be used for the fast numerical computations of far fields and for the statistics of random rough surfaces. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterization of Scattering Data for the AKNS System

We characterize the scattering data of the AKNS system with vanishing boundary conditions. We prove a 1,1-correspondence between L ¹-potentials without spectral singularities and Marchenko integral kernels which are sums of an L ¹ function (having a reflection coefficient as its Fourier transform) and a finite exponential sum encoding bound states and norming constants. We give characterization results in the focusing and defocusing cases separately.     

Propagation des singularités Gevrey pour l’équation de Cauchy-Riemann dégénérée

In this paper we study the degenerate Cauchy-Riemann equation in Gevrey classes. We first prove the local solvability in Gevrey classes of functions and ultra-distributions. Using microlocal techniques with Fourier integral operators of infinite order and microlocal energy estimates, we prove a result of propagation of singularities along one dimensional bicharacteristics.      

Microlocal kernel of pseudodifferential operators at a hyperbolic fixed point

We study the microlocal kernel of h-pseudodifferential operators Oph(p)−z, where z belongs to some neighborhood of size O(h) of a critical value of its principal symbol p₀(x,ξ). We suppose that this critical value corresponds to a hyperbolic fixed point of the Hamiltonian flow Hp₀. First we describe propagation of singularities at such a hyperbolic fixed point, both in the analytic and in the C^∞ category. In both cases, we show that the null solution is the only element of this microlocal kernel which vanishes on the stable incoming manifold, but for energies z in some discrete set. For energies z out of this set, we build the element of the microlocal kernel with given data on the incoming manifold. We describe completely the operator which associate the value of this null solution on the outgoing manifold to the initial data on the incoming one. In particular it appears to be a semiclassical Fourier integral operator associated to some natural canonical relation.     

A trigonometric Galerkin method for volume integral equations arising in TM grating scattering

Transverse magnetic (TM) scattering of an electromagnetic wave from a periodic dielectric diffraction grating can mathematically be described by a volume integral equation.This volume integral equation, however, in general fails to feature a weakly singular integral operator. Nevertheless, after a suitable periodization, the involved integral operator can be efficiently evaluated on trigonometric polynomials using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and iterative methods can be used to solve the integral equation. Using Fredholm theory, we prove that a trigonometric Galerkin discretization applied to the periodized integral equation converges with optimal order to the solution of the scattering problem. The main advantage of this FFT-based discretization scheme is that the resulting numerical method is particularly easy to implement, avoiding for instance the need to evaluate quasiperiodic Green’s functions.     

Near field imaging of small isotropic and extended anisotropic scatterers

In this paper, we consider two time-harmonic inverse scattering problems of reconstructing penetrable inhomogeneous obstacles from near field measurements. First, we appeal to the Born approximation for reconstructing small isotropic scatterers via the MUSIC algorithm. Some numerical reconstructions using the MUSIC algorithm are provided for reconstructing the scatterer and piecewise constant refractive index using a Bayesian method. We then consider the reconstruction of an anisotropic extended scatterer by a modified linear sampling method and the factorization method applied to the near field operator. This provides a rigorous characterization of the support of the anisotropic obstacle in terms of a range test derived from the measured data. Under appropriate assumptions on the material parameters, the derived factorization can be used to determine the support of the medium without a priori knowledge of the material properties.     

Quantitative approximation by fractional smooth general singular operators

In this article we study the fractional smooth general singular integral operators on the real line, regarding their convergence to the unit operator with fractional rates in the uniform norm. The related established inequalities involve the higher order moduli of smoothness of the associated right and left Caputo fractional derivatives of the engaged function. Furthermore we produce a fractional Voronovskaya type result giving the fractional asymptotic expansion of the basic error of our approximation.We finish with applications to fractional trigonometric singular integral operators. Our operators are not in general positive.     

The interior transmission problem for anisotropic Maxwell's equations and its applications to the inverse problem

The interior transmission problem appears naturally in the study of the inverse scattering problem of determining the shape of a penetrable medium from a knowledge of the time harmonic incident waves and the far field patterns of the scattered waves. We propose a variational study of this problem in the case of Maxwell's equations in an inhomogeneous anisotropic medium. Then we apply the obtained results to build an ‘extented far field’ operator and give a characterization of the medium from the knowledge of the range of this operator. We then show how the linear sampling method can be viewed as an approximation of this characterization. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

INVERSE MEDIUM SCATTERING PROBLEMS IN NEAR-FIELD OPTICS

A regularized recursive linearization method is developed for a two-dimensional in-verse medium scattering problem that arises in near-field optics, which reconstructs the scatterer of an inhomogeneous medium deposited on a homogeneous substrate from data accessible through photon scanning tunneling microscopy experiments. In addition to the ill-posedness of the inverse scattering problems, two difficulties arise from the layered back-ground medium and limited aperture data. Based on multiple frequency scattering data, the method starts from the Born approximation corresponding to the weak scattering at a low frequency, each update is obtained via recursive linearization with respect to the wavenumber by solving one forward problem and one adjoint problem of the Helmholtz equation. Numerical experiments are included to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method.     

Use of specific Green's functions for solving direct problems involving a heterogeneous rigid frame porous medium slab solicited by acoustic waves

A domain integral method employing a specific Green's function (i.e. incorporating some features of the global problem of wave propagation in an inhomogeneous medium) is developed for solving direct and inverse scattering problems relative to slab‐like macroscopically inhomogeneous porous obstacles. It is shown how to numerically solve such problems, involving both spatially‐varying density and compressibility, by means of an iterative scheme initialized with a Born approximation. A numerical solution is obtained for a canonical problem involving a two‐layer slab. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.