DIRECT/ITERATIVE HYBRID SOLVER FOR SCATTERING BY INHOMOGENEOUS MEDIA

This paper presents a fast high-order method for the solution of two-dimensional problems of scattering by penetrable inhomogeneous media, with application to high-frequency configurations containing (possibly) discontinuous refractivities. The method relies on a hybrid direct/iterative combination of (1) a differential volumetric formulation (which is based on the use of appropriate Chebyshev differentiation matrices enacting the Laplace operator) and (2) a second- kind boundary integral formulation (which, once again, utilizes Chebyshev discretization, but, in this case, in the boundary integral context). The approach enjoys low dispersion and high-order accuracy for smooth refractivities, as well as second-order accuracy (while maintaining low dispersion) in the discontinuous refractivity case. The solution approach proceeds by application of impedance- to-impedance (ItI) maps to couple the volumetric and boundary discretizations. The volumetric linear algebra solutions are obtained by means of a multifrontal solver, and the coupling with the boundary integral formulation is achieved via an application of the iterative linear algebra solver GMRES. In particular, the existence and uniqueness theory presented in the present paper provides an affirmative answer to an open question concerning the existence of a uniquely solvable second-kind ItI-based formulation for the overall scattering problem under consideration. Relying on a modestly demanding scatterer-dependent precomputation stage (requiring in practice a computing cost of the order of O ( N \alpha ) operations, with \alpha \approx 1 . 07, for an N-point discretization and for the relevant Chebyshev accuracy orders q used), together with fast (O(N)-cost) O ( N )-cost) single-core runs for each incident field considered, the proposed algorithm can effectively solve scattering problems for large and complex objects possibly containing discontinuities and strong refractivity contrasts.