English

Error estimates for Gaussian beams at a fold caustic

Classical Analysis and ODEs 2023-07-18 v2 Numerical Analysis Analysis of PDEs Numerical Analysis

Abstract

In this work we show an error estimate for a first order Gaussian beam at a fold caustic, approximating time-harmonic waves governed by the Helmholtz equation. For the caustic that we study the exact solution can be constructed using Airy functions and there are explicit formulae for the Gaussian beam parameters. Via precise comparisons we show that the pointwise error on the caustic is of the order O(k5/6)O(k^{-5/6}) where kk is the wave number in Helmholtz.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2304.00556,
  title  = {Error estimates for Gaussian beams at a fold caustic},
  author = {Olivier Lafitte and Olof Runborg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.00556},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T09:45:19.633Z