On a half-space radiation condition

Abstract

For the Dirichlet problem of the Helmholtz equation over the half space or rough surfaces, a radiation condition is needed to guarantee a unique solution, which is physically meaningful. If the Dirichlet data is a general bounded continuous function, then the well-established Sommerfeld radiation condition, the angular spectrum representation, and the upward propagating radiation condition do not apply or require restrictions on the data, in order to define the involved integrals. In this paper a new condition based on a representation of the second derivative of the solution is proposed. The twice differentiable half-space Green's function is integrable and the corresponding radiation condition applies to general bounded functions. The condition is checked for special functions like plane waves and point source solution. Moreover, the Dirichlet problem for the half plane is discussed. Note that such a ``continuous'' radiation condition is helpful e.g. if finite sections of the rough-surface problem are analyzed.