Why it is Difficult to Solve Helmholtz Problems with Classical Iterative Methods

摘要

In contrast to the positive definite Helmholtz equation, the deceivingly similar looking indefinite Helmholtz equation is difficult to solve using classical iterative methods. Simply using a Krylov method is much less effective, especially when the wave number in the Helmholtz operator becomes large, and also algebraic preconditioners such as incomplete LU factorizations do not remedy the situation. Even more powerful preconditioners such as classical domain decomposition and multigrid methods fail to lead to a convergent method, and often behave differently from their usual behavior for positive definite problems. For example increasing the overlap in a classical Schwarz method degrades its performance, as does increasing the number of smoothing steps in multigrid. The purpose of this review paper is to explain why classical iterative methods fail to be effective for Helmholtz problems, and to show different avenues that have been taken to address this difficulty.