Section: New Results

Invisiblity and transmission eigenvalues

Inside-outside duality with artificial backgrounds

L. Audibert, L. Chesnel, H. Haddar

We use the inside-outside duality approach proposed by Kirsch-Lechleiter to identify transmission eigenvalues associated with artificial backgrounds. We prove that for well chosen artificial backgrounds, in particular for the ones with zero index of refraction at the inclusion location, one obtains a necessary and sufficient condition characterizing transmission eigenvalues via the spectrum of the modified far field operator. We also complement the existing literature with a convergence result for the invisible generalized incident field associated with the transmission eigenvalues [1].

Surface waves in a channel with thin tunnels and wells at the bottom: non-reflecting underwater topography

L. Chesnel, S.A. Nazarov, J. Taskinen

We consider the propagation of surface water waves in a straight planar channel perturbed at the bottom by several thin curved tunnels and wells. We propose a method to construct non reflecting underwater topographies of this type at an arbitrary prescribed wave number. To proceed, we compute asymptotic expansions of the diffraction solutions with respect to the small parameter of the geometry taking into account the existence of boundary layer phenomena. We establish error estimates to validate the expansions using advances techniques of weighted spaces with detached asymptotics. In the process, we show the absence of trapped surface waves for perturbations small enough. This analysis furnishes asymptotic formulas for the scattering matrix and we use them to determine underwater topographies which are non-reflecting. Theoretical and numerical examples are given [6]

Exact zero transmission during the Fano resonance phenomenon in non symmetric waveguides

L. Chesnel, S.A. Nazarov

We investigate a time-harmonic wave problem in a waveguide. We work at low frequency so that only one mode can propagate. It is known that the scattering matrix exhibits a rapid variation for real frequencies in a vicinity of a complex resonance located close to the real axis. This is the so-called Fano resonance phenomenon. And when the geometry presents certain properties of symmetry, there are two different real frequencies such that we have either $R=0$ or $T=0$, where $R$ and $T$ denote the reflection and transmission coefficients. In this work, we prove that without the assumption of symmetry of the geometry, quite surprisingly, there is always one real frequency for which we have $T=0$. In this situation, all the energy sent in the waveguide is backscattered. However in general, we do not have $R=0$ in the process. We provide numerical results to illustrate our theorems [33].

Homogenization of Maxwell's equations and related scalar problems with sign-changing coefficients

R. Bunoiu, L. Chesnel, K. Ramdani, M. Rihani

In this work, we are interested in the homogenization of time-harmonic Maxwell's equations in a composite medium with periodically distributed small inclusions of a negative material. Here a negative material is a material modelled by negative permittivity and permeability. Due to the sign-changing coefficients in the equations, it is not straightforward to obtain uniform energy estimates to apply the usual homogenization techniques. The goal of this work is to explain how to proceed in this context. The analysis of Maxwell's equations is based on a precise study of two associated scalar problems: one involving the sign-changing permittivity with Dirichlet boundary conditions, another involving the sign-changing permeability with Neumann boundary conditions. For both problems, we obtain a criterion on the physical parameters ensuring uniform invertibility of the corresponding operators as the size of the inclusions tends to zero. In the process, we explain the link existing with the so-called Neumann-Poincaré operator, complementing the existing literature on this topic. Then we use the results obtained for the scalar problems to derive uniform energy estimates for Maxwell's system. At this stage, an additional difficulty comes from the fact that Maxwell's equations are also sign-indefinite due to the term involving the frequency. To cope with it, we establish some sort of uniform compactness result [32].