Regularity results for transmission problems with sign-changing coefficients: a modal approach

Abstract

We investigate some scalar transmission problems between a classical positive material and a negative one, whose physical coefficients are negative. First, we consider cases where the negative inclusion is a disk in 2d and a ball in 3d. Thanks to asymptotics of Bessel functions (validated numerically), we show well-posedness but with some possible loses of regularity of the solution compared to the classical case of transmission problems between two positive materials. Noticing that the curvature plays a central role, we then explore the case of flat interfaces in the context of waveguides. In this case, the transmission problem can also have some loses of regularity, or even be ill-posed (kernel of infinite dimension).