Abstract: We consider the time-harmonic electromagnetic transmission problem for the unit sphere. Appealing to a vector spherical harmonics analysis, we prove the first stability result of the local multiple traces formulation (MTF) for electromagnetics, originally introduced by Hiptmair and Jerez-Hanckes (2012) for the acoustic case, paving the way towards an extension to general piecewise homogeneous scatterers. Moreover, we investigate preconditioning techniques for the local MTF scheme and study the accumulation points of induced operators. In particular, we propose a novel second-order inverse approximation of the operator. Numerical experiments validate our claims and confirm the relevance of the preconditioning strategies.

Abstract: We consider the problem of domain approximation in finite element methods for Maxwell equations on curved domains, i.e., when affine or polynomial meshes fail to exactly cover the domain of interest. In such cases, one is forced to approximate the domain by a sequence of polyhedral domains arising from inexact meshes. We deduce conditions on the quality of these approximations that ensure rates of error convergence between discrete solutions -- in the approximate domains -- to the continuous one in the original domain.

Abstract: We study the numerical approximation of time-harmonic, electromagnetic fields inside a lossy cavity of uncertain geometry. Key assumptions are a possibly high-dimensional parametrization of the uncertain geometry along with a suitable transformation to a fixed, nominal domain. This uncertainty parametrization results in families of countably parametric, Maxwell-like cavity problems that are posed in a single domain, with inhomogeneous coefficients that possess finite, possibly low spatial regularity, but exhibit holomorphic parametric dependence in the differential operator. Our computational scheme is composed of a sparse grid interpolation in the high-dimensional parameter domain and an Hcurl -conforming edge element discretization of the parametric problem in the nominal domain. As a stepping-stone in the analysis, we derive a novel Strang-type lemma for Maxwell-like problems in the nominal domain, which is of independent interest. Moreover, we accommodate arbitrary small Sobolev regularity of the electric field and also cover uncertain isotropic constitutive or material laws. The shape holomorphy and edge-element consistency error analysis for the nominal problem are shown to imply convergence rates for multilevel Monte Carlo and for quasi-Monte Carlo integration, as well as sparse grid approximations, in uncertainty quantification for computational electromagnetics. They also imply expression rate estimates for deep ReLU networks of shape-to-solution maps in this setting. Finally, our computational experiments confirm the presented theoretical results.

Abstract: This work presents the implementation, numerical examples, and experimental convergence study of first- and second-order optimization methods applied to one-dimensional periodic gratings. Through boundary integral equations and shape derivatives, the profile of a grating is optimized such that it maximizes the diffraction efficiency for given diffraction modes for transverse electric polarization. We provide a thorough comparison of three different optimization methods: a first-order method (gradient descent); a second-order approach based on a Newton iteration, where the usual Newton step is replaced by taking the absolute value of the eigenvalues given by the spectral decomposition of the Hessian matrix to deal with non-convexity; and the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) algorithm, a quasi-Newton method. Numerical examples are provided to validate our claims. Moreover, two grating profiles are designed for high efficiency in the Littrow configuration and then compared to a high efficiency commercial grating. Conclusions and recommendations, derived from the numerical experiments, are provided as well as future research avenues. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America

Abstract: We consider the numerical solution of time-harmonic acoustic scattering by obstacles with uncertain geometries for Dirichlet, Neumann, impedance, and transmission boundary conditions. In particular, we aim to quantify diffracted fields originated by small stochastic perturbations of a given relatively smooth nominal shape. Using first-order shape Taylor expansions, we derive tensor deterministic first-kind boundary integral equations for the statistical moments of the scattering problems considered. These are then approximated by sparse tensor Galerkin discretizations via the combination technique [M. Griebel, M. Schneider, and C. Zenger, A combination technique for the solution of sparse grid problems, in Iterative Methods in Linear Algebra, P. de Groen and P. Beauwens, eds., Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1992, pp. 263-281; H. Harbrecht, M. Peters, and M. Siebenmorgen, J. Comput. Phys., 252 (2013), pp. 128-141]. We supply extensive numerical experiments confirming the predicted error convergence rates with polylogarithmic growth in the number of degrees of freedom and accuracy in approximation of the moments. Moreover, we discuss implementation details such as preconditioning to finally point out further research avenues.

Abstract: Calderon multiplicative preconditioners are an effective way to improve the condition number of first kind boundary integral equations yielding provable mesh independent bounds. However, when discretizing by local low-order basis functions as in standard Galerkin boundary element methods, their computational performance worsens as meshes are refined. This stems from the barycentric mesh refinement used to construct dual basis functions that guarantee the discrete stability of L-2-pairings. Based on coarser quadrature rules over dual cells and H-matrix compression, we propose a family of fast preconditioners that significantly reduce assembly and computation times when compared to standard versions of Calderon preconditioning for the three-dimensional Helmholtz weakly and hyper-singular boundary integral operators. Several numerical experiments validate our claims and point towards further enhancements. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Abstract: We consider first-kind weakly singular and hypersingular boundary integral operators for the Laplacian on screens in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ and their Galerkin discretization by means of low-order piecewise polynomial boundary elements. For the resulting linear systems of equations we propose novel Calderón-type preconditioners based on (i) new boundary integral operators, which provide the exact inverses of the weakly singular and hypersingular operators on flat disks, and (ii) stable duality pairings relying on dual meshes. On screens obtained as images of the unit disk under bi-Lipschitz transformations, this approach achieves condition numbers uniformly bounded in the meshwidth even on locally refined meshes. Comprehensive numerical tests also confirm its excellent preasymptotic performance.

Abstract: We present a spectral Galerkin numerical scheme for solving Helmholtz and Laplace prob- lems with Dirichlet boundary conditions on a finite collection of open arcs in two-dimensional space. A boundary integral method is employed, giving rise to a first kind Fredholm equation whose variational form is discretized using weighted Chebyshev polynomials. Well-posedness of the discrete problems is established as well as algebraic or even exponential convergence rates depending on the regularities of both arcs and excitations. Our numerical experiments show the robustness of the method with respect to number of arcs and large wavenumber range. Moreover, we present a suitable compression algorithm that further accelerates computational times.

Abstract: We solve first-kind Fredholm boundary integral equations arising from Helmholtz and Laplace problems on bounded, smooth screens in three dimensions with either Dirichlet or Neumann conditions. The proposed Galerkin-Bubnov methods take as discretization elements pushed-forward weighted azimuthal projections of standard spherical harmonics onto the unit disk. By exactly depicting edge singular behaviors we show that these spectral or high-order bases yield super-algebraic error convergence in the corresponding energy norms whenever the screen is an analytic deformation of the unit disk. Moreover, we provide a fully discrete analysis of the method, including quadrature rules, based on analytic extensions of the spectral basis to complex neighborhoods. Finally, we include numerical experiments to support our claims as well as appendices with computational details for treating the associated singular integrals.

Abstract: We consider a three-dimensional model for a myelinated neuron, which includes Hodgkin–Huxley ordinary differential equations to represent membrane dynamics at Ranvier nodes (unmyelinated areas). Assuming a periodic microstructure with alternating myelinated and unmyelinated parts, we use homogenization methods to derive a one-dimensional nonlinear cable equation describing the potential propagation along the neuron. Since the resistivity of intracellular and extracellular domains is much smaller than the myelin resistivity, we assume this last one to be a perfect insulator and impose homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions on the myelin boundary. In contrast to the case when the conductivity of the myelin is nonzero, no additional terms appear in the one-dimensional limit equation, and the model geometry affects the limit solution implicitly through an auxiliary cell problem used to compute the effective coefficient. We present numerical examples revealing the forecasted dependence of the effective coefficient on the size of the Ranvier node.