Splitting of resonant and scattering frequencies under shape deformation

It is well known that the main difficulty in solving eigenvalue problems under shape deformation relates to the continuation of multiple eigenvalues of the unperturbed configuration. These eigenvalues may evolve, under shape deformation, as separated, distinct eigenvaiues, and the splitting may only become apparent at high orders in their Taylor expansion. In this paper, we address the splitting problem in the evaluation of resonant and scattering frequencies of the two-dimensional Laplacian operator under boundary variations of the domain. By using surface potentials we show that the eigenvalues are the characteristic values of meromorphic operator-valued functions that are of Fredholm type with index 0. We then proceed from the generalized Rouch's theorem to investigate the splitting problem. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.