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David Lafontaine

Publications and source records attributed to David Lafontaine.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Convergence of overlapping domain decomposition methods with PML transmission conditions applied to nontrapping Helmholtz problems

We study overlapping Schwarz methods for the Helmholtz equation posed in any dimension with large, real wavenumber and smooth variable wave speed. The radiation condition is approximated by a Cartesian perfectly-matched layer (PML). The domain-decomposition subdomains are overlapping hyperrectangles with Cartesian PMLs at their boundaries. The overlaps of the subdomains and the widths of the PMLs are all taken to be independent of the wavenumber. For both parallel (i.e., additive) and sequential (i.e., multiplicative) methods, we show that after a specified number of iterations -- depending on the behaviour of the geometric-optic rays -- the error is smooth and smaller than any negative power of the wavenumber. For the parallel method, the specified number of iterations is less than the maximum number of subdomains, counted with their multiplicity, that a geometric-optic ray can intersect. These results, which are illustrated by numerical experiments, are the first wavenumber-explicit results about convergence of overlapping Schwarz methods for the Helmholtz equation, and the first wavenumber-explicit results about convergence of any domain-decomposition method for the Helmholtz equation with a non-trivial scatterer (here a variable wave speed).

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arXiv2026

On scattering and profile decomposition for critical nonlinear waves outside weakly trapping obstacles

We prove scattering for the defocusing energy-critical non-linear wave equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions outside two strictly convex obstacles in dimension three. This is the first large data scattering result for such an equation in the presence of trapped trajectories. Our result is in fact more general and can be used as a black box in other geometries. More precisely, under the assumptions that the corresponding linear wave equation satisfies global Strichartz estimates, that the domain is weakly non-trapping and that trajectories do not reconcentrate, we show linear and nonlinear profile decompositions in infinite time. This implies scattering under the rigidity assumption that the only compact-flow solution is the trivial one.

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arXiv2026

Scattering for Defocusing NLS with Inhomogeneous Nonlinear Damping and Nonlinear Trapping Potential

We investigate an energy-subcritical defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation in $\mathbb R^3$ subject to a lower order nonlinear trapping potential and a spatially dependent nonlinear damping: \begin{equation*} i\partial_t u + Δu + i a(x) |u|^{2σ_2} u = |u|^{2σ_1} u + V(x)|u|^{2σ_3} u. \end{equation*} We prove that if the damping acts where $V$ induces concentration effects, i.e. where $V$ is either negative or non-repulsive, solutions are global and uniformly bounded in $H^1$, and scatter in the intercritical regime. A primary challenge arises from the spatial dependence of $a(x)$, which breaks the energy's monotonicity. Consequently, a uniform in time control of the $H^1$ norm of a solution is non-trivial and represents a new result even for $V = 0$. We overcome this issue by introducing a novel energy modified by virial argument, showing simultaneously a uniform bound on the energy and local energy decay estimates, which are subsequently upgraded to scattering via interaction Morawetz estimates.

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arXiv2025

Schwarz methods with PMLs for Helmholtz problems: fast convergence at high frequency

We discuss parallel (additive) and sequential (multiplicative) variants of overlapping Schwarz methods for the Helmholtz equation in $\mathbb{R}^d$, with large real wavenumber and smooth variable wave speed. The radiation condition is approximated by a Cartesian perfectly-matched layer (PML). The domain-decomposition subdomains are overlapping hyperrectangles with Cartesian PMLs at their boundaries. In a recent paper ({\tt arXiv:2404.02156}), the current authors proved (for both variants) that, after a specified number of iterations -- depending on the behaviour of the geometric-optic rays -- the error is smooth and smaller than any negative power of the wavenumber $k$. For the parallel method, the specified number of iterations is less than the maximum number of subdomains, counted with their multiplicity, that a geometric-optic ray can intersect. The theory, which is given at the continuous level and makes essential use of semi-classical analysis, assumes that the overlaps of the subdomains and the widths of the PMLs are all independent of the wavenumber. In this paper we extend the results of {\tt arXiv:2404.02156} by experimentally studying the behaviour of the methods in the practically important case when both the overlap and the PML width decrease as the wavenumber increases. We find that (at least for constant wavespeed), the methods remain robust to increasing $k$, even for miminal overlap, when the PML is one wavelength wide.

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arXiv2025

Observability estimates for the Schrödinger equation on the equilateral triangle

We prove observability estimates for the Schrödinger equation posed on the equilateral triangle in the plane, under both Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions. No geometric control condition is required on the rough localization functions that we consider. This is the first result of this kind on a non-toric domain in the compact setting. Our strategy is to exploit Pinsky's tiling argument to deduce this result from observability estimates on rational twisted tori. These are obtained via propagation of singularities, adapting arguments from Burq and Zworski. The later require Strichartz estimates on such twisted rational tori, that we derive from Zygmund inequalities in the same geometric setting, also providing the sharp constant. Strichartz estimates on the equilateral triangle are also derived from this analysis.

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arXiv2025

Scattering for defocusing cubic NLS under locally damped strong trapping

We are interested in the scattering problem for the cubic 3D nonlinear defocusing Schrödinger equation with variable coefficients. Previous scattering results for such problems address only the cases with constant coefficients or assume strong variants of the non-trapping condition, stating that all the trajectories of the Hamiltonian flow associated with the operator are escaping to infinity. In contrast, we consider the most general setting, where strong trapping, such as stable closed geodesics, may occur, but we introduce a compactly supported damping term localized in the trapping region, to explore how damping can mitigate the effects of trapping. In addition to the challenges posed by the trapped trajectories, notably the loss of smoothing and of scale-invariant Strichartz estimates, difficulties arise from the damping itself, particularly since the energy is not, a priori, bounded. For $H^{1+ε}$ initial data -- chosen because the local-in-time theory is a priori no better than for 3D unbounded manifolds, where local well-posedness of strong $H^1$ solutions is unavailable -- we establish global existence and scattering in $H^{s}$ for any $0 \leq s <1$ in positive times, the inability to reach $H^1$ being related to the loss of smoothing due to trapping.

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arXiv2024

Sharp bounds on Helmholtz impedance-to-impedance maps and application to overlapping domain decomposition

We prove sharp bounds on certain impedance-to-impedance maps (and their compositions) for the Helmholtz equation with large wavenumber (i.e., at high-frequency) using semiclassical defect measures. The paper [GGGLS] (Gong-Gander-Graham-Lafontaine-Spence, 2022) recently showed that the behaviour of these impedance-to-impedance maps (and their compositions) dictates the convergence of the parallel overlapping Schwarz domain-decomposition method with impedance boundary conditions on the subdomain boundaries. For a model decomposition with two subdomains and sufficiently-large overlap, the results of this paper combined with those in [GGGLS] show that the parallel Schwarz method is power contractive, independent of the wavenumber. For strip-type decompositions with many subdomains, the results of this paper show that the composite impedance-to-impedance maps, in general, behave "badly" with respect to the wavenumber; nevertheless, by proving results about the composite maps applied to a restricted class of data, we give insight into the wavenumber-robustness of the parallel Schwarz method observed in the numerical experiments in [GGGLS].

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arXiv2024

The $hp$-FEM applied to the Helmholtz equation with PML truncation does not suffer from the pollution effect

We consider approximation of the variable-coefficient Helmholtz equation in the exterior of a Dirichlet obstacle using perfectly-matched-layer (PML) truncation; it is well known that this approximation is exponentially accurate in the PML width and the scaling angle, and the approximation was recently proved to be exponentially accurate in the wavenumber $k$ in [Galkowski, Lafontaine, Spence, 2021]. We show that the $hp$-FEM applied to this problem does not suffer from the pollution effect, in that there exist $C_1,C_2>0$ such that if $hk/p\leq C_1$ and $p \geq C_2 \log k$ then the Galerkin solutions are quasioptimal (with constant independent of $k$), under the following two conditions (i) the solution operator of the original Helmholtz problem is polynomially bounded in $k$ (which occurs for "most" $k$ by [Lafontaine, Spence, Wunsch, 2021]), and (ii) either there is no obstacle and the coefficients are smooth or the obstacle is analytic and the coefficients are analytic in a neighbourhood of the obstacle and smooth elsewhere. This $hp$-FEM result is obtained via a decomposition of the PML solution into "high-" and "low-frequency" components, analogous to the decomposition for the original Helmholtz solution recently proved in [Galkowski, Lafontaine, Spence, Wunsch, 2022]. The decomposition is obtained using tools from semiclassical analysis (i.e., the PDE techniques specifically designed for studying Helmholtz problems with large $k$).

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arXiv2023

Local absorbing boundary conditions on fixed domains give order-one errors for high-frequency waves

We consider approximating the solution of the Helmholtz exterior Dirichlet problem for a nontrapping obstacle, with boundary data coming from plane-wave incidence, by the solution of the corresponding boundary value problem where the exterior domain is truncated and a local absorbing boundary condition coming from a Padé approximation (of arbitrary order) of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map is imposed on the artificial boundary (recall that the simplest such boundary condition is the impedance boundary condition). We prove upper- and lower-bounds on the relative error incurred by this approximation, both in the whole domain and in a fixed neighbourhood of the obstacle (i.e. away from the artificial boundary). Our bounds are valid for arbitrarily-high frequency, with the artificial boundary fixed, and show that the relative error is bounded away from zero, independent of the frequency, and regardless of the geometry of the artificial boundary.

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arXiv2023

Perfectly-matched-layer truncation is exponentially accurate at high frequency

We consider a wide variety of scattering problems including scattering by Dirichlet, Neumann, and penetrable obstacles. We consider a radial perfectly-matched layer (PML) and show that for any PML width and a steep-enough scaling angle, the PML solution is exponentially close, both in frequency and the tangent of the scaling angle, to the true scattering solution. Moreover, for a fixed scaling angle and large enough PML width, the PML solution is exponentially close to the true scattering solution in both frequency and the PML width. In fact, the exponential bound holds with rate of decay $c(w\tanθ-C) k$ where $w$ is the PML width and $θ$ is the scaling angle. More generally, the results of the paper hold in the framework of black-box scattering under the assumption of an exponential bound on the norm of the cutoff resolvent, thus including problems with strong trapping. These are the first results on the exponential accuracy of PML at high-frequency with non-trivial scatterers.

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arXiv2022

Convergence of parallel overlapping domain decomposition methods for the Helmholtz equation

We analyse parallel overlapping Schwarz domain decomposition methods for the Helmholtz equation, where the subdomain problems satisfy first-order absorbing (impedance) transmission conditions, and exchange of information between subdomains is achieved using a partition of unity. We provide a novel analysis of this method at the PDE level (without discretization). First, we formulate the method as a fixed point iteration, and show (in dimensions 1,2,3) that it is well-defined in a tensor product of appropriate local function spaces, each with $L^2$ impedance boundary data. Given this, we then obtain a bound on the norm of the fixed point operator in terms of the local norms of certain impedance-to-impedance maps arising from local interactions between subdomains. These bounds provide conditions under which (some power of) the fixed point operator is a contraction. In 2-d, for rectangular domains and strip-wise domain decompositions (with each subdomain only overlapping its immediate neighbours), we present two techniques for verifying the assumptions on the impedance-to-impedance maps which ensure power contractivity of the fixed point operator. The first is through semiclassical analysis, which gives rigorous estimates valid as the frequency tends to infinity. These results verify the required assumptions for sufficiently large overlap. For more realistic domain decompositions, we directly compute the norms of the impedance-to-impedance maps by solving certain canonical (local) eigenvalue problems. We give numerical experiments that illustrate the theory. These also show that the iterative method remains convergent and/or provides a good preconditioner in cases not covered by the theory, including for general domain decompositions, such as those obtained via automatic graph-partitioning software.

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arXiv2022

Decompositions of high-frequency Helmholtz solutions via functional calculus, and application to the finite element method

Over the last ten years, results from [Melenk-Sauter, 2010], [Melenk-Sauter, 2011], [Esterhazy-Melenk, 2012], and [Melenk-Parsania-Sauter, 2013] decomposing high-frequency Helmholtz solutions into "low"- and "high"-frequency components have had a large impact in the numerical analysis of the Helmholtz equation. These results have been proved for the constant-coefficient Helmholtz equation in either the exterior of a Dirichlet obstacle or an interior domain with an impedance boundary condition. Using the Helffer-Sjöstrand functional calculus, this paper proves analogous decompositions for scattering problems fitting into the black-box scattering framework of Sjöstrand-Zworski, thus covering Helmholtz problems with variable coefficients, impenetrable obstacles, and penetrable obstacles all at once. These results allow us to prove new frequency-explicit convergence results for (i) the $hp$-finite-element method applied to the variable coefficient Helmholtz equation in the exterior of a Dirichlet obstacle, when the obstacle and coefficients are analytic, and (ii) the $h$-finite-element method applied to the Helmholtz penetrable-obstacle transmission problem. In particular, the result in (i) shows that the $hp$-FEM applied to this problem does not suffer from the pollution effect.

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arXiv2022

Wavenumber-explicit convergence of the $hp$-FEM for the full-space heterogeneous Helmholtz equation with smooth coefficients

A convergence theory for the $hp$-FEM applied to a variety of constant-coefficient Helmholtz problems was pioneered in the papers [Melenk-Sauter, 2010], [Melenk-Sauter, 2011], [Esterhazy-Melenk, 2012], [Melenk-Parsania-Sauter, 2013]. This theory shows that, if the solution operator is bounded polynomially in the wavenumber $k$, then the Galerkin method is quasioptimal provided that $hk/p \leq C_1$ and $p\geq C_2 \log k$, where $C_1$ is sufficiently small, $C_2$ is sufficiently large, and both are independent of $k,h,$ and $p$. The significance of this result is that if $hk/p= C_1$ and $p=C_2\log k$, then quasioptimality is achieved with the total number of degrees of freedom proportional to $k^d$; i.e., the $hp$-FEM does not suffer from the pollution effect. This paper proves the analogous quasioptimality result for the heterogeneous (i.e. variable-coefficient) Helmholtz equation, posed in $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d=2,3$, with the Sommerfeld radiation condition at infinity, and $C^\infty$ coefficients. We also prove a bound on the relative error of the Galerkin solution in the particular case of the plane-wave scattering problem. These are the first ever results on the wavenumber-explicit convergence of the $hp$-FEM for the Helmholtz equation with variable coefficients.

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arXiv2021

A sharp relative-error bound for the Helmholtz $h$-FEM at high frequency

For the $h$-finite-element method ($h$-FEM) applied to the Helmholtz equation, the question of how quickly the meshwidth $h$ must decrease with the frequency $k$ to maintain accuracy as $k$ increases has been studied since the mid 80's. Nevertheless, there still do not exist in the literature any $k$-explicit bounds on the relative error of the FEM solution (the measure of the FEM error most often used in practical applications), apart from in one dimension. The main result of this paper is the sharp result that, for the lowest fixed-order conforming FEM (with polynomial degree, $p$, equal to one), the condition "$h^2 k^3$ sufficiently small" is sufficient for the relative error of the FEM solution in 2 or 3 dimensions to be controllably small (independent of $k$) for scattering of a plane wave by a nontrapping obstacle and/or a nontrapping inhomogeneous medium. We also prove relative-error bounds on the FEM solution for arbitrary fixed-order methods applied to scattering by a nontrapping obstacle, but these bounds are not sharp for $p\geq 2$. A key ingredient in our proofs is a result describing the oscillatory behaviour of the solution of the plane-wave scattering problem, which we prove using semiclassical defect measures.

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arXiv2020

Scattering for critical radial Neumann waves outside a ball

We show that the solutions of the three-dimensional critical defocusing nonlinear wave equation with Neumann boundary conditions outside a ball and radial initial data scatter. This is to our knowledge the first result of scattering for a nonlinear wave equation with Neumann boundary conditions. Our proof uses the scheme of concentration-compactness/rigidity introduced by Kenig and Merle, extending it to our setup, together with the so-called channels of energy method to rule out compact-flow solutions. We also obtain, for the focusing equation, the same exact scattering/blow-up dichotomy below the energy of the ground-state as in $\mathbb R^3$.

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arXiv2020

For most frequencies, strong trapping has a weak effect in frequency-domain scattering

It is well known that when the geometry and/or coefficients allow stable trapped rays, the outgoing solution operator of the Helmholtz equation (a.k.a. the resolvent of the Laplacian) grows exponentially through a sequence of real frequencies tending to infinity. In this paper we show that, even in the presence of the strongest-possible trapping, if a set of frequencies of arbitrarily small measure is excluded, the Helmholtz solution operator grows at most polynomially as the frequency tends to infinity. One significant application of this result is in the convergence analysis of several numerical methods for solving the Helmholtz equation at high frequency that are based on a polynomial-growth assumption on the solution operator (e.g. $hp$-finite elements, $hp$-boundary elements, certain multiscale methods). The result of this paper shows that this assumption holds, even in the presence of the strongest-possible trapping, for most frequencies.

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arXiv2019

Scattering for NLS with a sum of two repulsive potentials

We prove the scattering for a defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a sum of two repulsive potentials with strictly convex level surfaces, thus providing a scattering result in a trapped setting similar to the exterior of two strictly convex obstacles.

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