Many-body wave scattering by small bodies and applications

Abstract

A rigorous reduction of the many-body wave scattering problem to solving a linear algebraic system is given bypassing solving the usual system of integral equation. The limiting case of infinitely many small particles embedded into a medium is considered and the limiting equation for the field in the medium is derived. The impedance boundary conditions are imposed on the boundaries of small bodies. The case of Neumann boundary conditions (acoustically hard particles) is also considered. Applications to creating materials with a desired refraction coefficient are given. It is proved that by embedding suitable number of small particles per unit volume of the original material with suitable boundary impedances one can create a new material with any desired refraction coefficient. The governing equation is a scalar Helmholtz equation, which one obtains by Fourier transforming the wave equation.