Numerical analysis of the high-frequency Helmholtz equation using semiclassical analysis

Abstract

We consider the numerical solution of high-frequency scattering problems modeled by the Helmholtz equation with a bounded obstacle. Although the analysis of this problem dates back at least 50 years, over the past decade or so, tools and techniques from $\textit{semiclassical analysis}$ have provided a new perspective and been used to settle several long-standing open problems in this area. Semiclassical analysis works in phase space (i.e., position and frequency) and describes rigorously the extent to which solutions of high-frequency PDEs are dictated by the properties of the corresponding geometric-optic rays. The goals of the article are to (i) give a introduction to semiclassical analysis aimed at non-experts and (ii) showcase some of the numerical-analysis results about finite-element methods, boundary-element methods, and domain-decomposition methods obtained using semiclassical techniques.